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An Analysis Of The Role Of The School Psychologist In The State Of California

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An Analysis Of The Role Of The School Psychologist In The State Of California

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Content This d issertation has been 62— 3748 m icrofilm ed exactly as receiv ed SMITH, Tom E arl, 1 925- AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. U niversity of Southern C alifornia, P h.D ., 1962 Education, psychology University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA by Tom Earl Smith A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Education) June 1962 UNIVERSITY OF S O U T H E R N CALIFORNIA GRADUATE S C H O O L U N IV ER SITY PA R K L O S A N G E L E S 7 . C A L IF O R N IA This dissertation, written by .TQM. EARL .SMITH..................... r under the direction of Dissertation C om mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Dean of the Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of requirements fo r the degree of D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y Dean DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Chairman TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES........................................ v Chapter I. THE PROBLEM AND PROCEDURE..................... 1 The Problem Importance of the Study Scope of the Study Definition of Terms Organization of the Study II. RELATED RESEARCH AND LITERATURE ABOUT SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS AND THE 'MEASUREMENT OF THEIR ROUES.................................. 14 Literature about School Psychologists Literature about Role Theory The School Executive Studies Summary III. PROCEDURES.................................... 53 The Opinionaire The Selection of Participants The Survey The Statistical Analysis Summary IV. THE PARTICIPANTS OR ROLE DEFINERS............. 78 The School Psychologists The School Superintendents The College and University Faculty Members Summary .......... . ii . . . . . :Chapter V. ROLE ITEMS WITH A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE . . The Analysis A Comparison of Superintendents* and Psychologists* Opinions A Comparison of Faculty Members* and Superintendents * Opinions A Comparison of Faculty Members' and Psychologists' Opinions Summary VI. AN ANALYSIS OF INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS . . . Intraposition Consensus of Superintendents Intraposition Consensus of Psychologists Intraposition Consensus of Faculty Members Summary VII. THE IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMANCES OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS .............................. The Performances as Ranked by Superintendents The Performances as Ranked by the Psychologists The Performances as Ranked by Faculty Members Summary VIII. THE FREQUENCY OF PERFORMANCES OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS .............................. Category: Very Often Category: Fairly Often Category: Occasionally Category: Never Summary IX. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . Review of the Problem and Methods Used Page . 112 . 180 287 305 . 317 iii ' Chapter Page Summary of the Findings Conclusions and Recommendations BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 351 APPENDIXES...............................................363 A. The Opinionaire.................................. 364 B. The Postcard...................................... 365 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Titles of Persons Performing Psychological Services................ 85 2. Distribution of Counties According to Psychologists Employed in E a c h ............... 88 3. Distribution of Psychologists According to Type of Employing Agency................... 92 4. Distribution of Psychologists According to Enrollment of the School Districts in Which They Were Employed..................... 93 5. Distribution of School Districts According to Number of School Psychologists Employed in Each . . ................ 95 6. Distribution of School Psychologists According to Institution in Which the Major Portion of Their Professional Training Was Taken . . . 97 7. Distribution of Superintendents According to Counties in Which They Were Employed .... 101 8. Distribution of Superintendents According to Organization in Which They Were Employed . . . 103 9. Distribution of Superintendents According to Pupil Enrollment of School Districts in Which They Were l&nployed....................105 10. Distribution of the Number of Psychologists Employed by School Districts According to the Superintendents' Report..................106 v » Table 11. Distribution of Superintendents According to Institutions in Which the Major Portion of Their Professional Training Was Taken . . . . 12. Distribution of Faculty Members According to Institutions in Which the Major Portion of Their Professional Training Was Taken . . 13. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Participations: Superintendents' Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists . . . 14. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances: Superintendents' Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists . . . 15. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Attributes: Superintendents * Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists . . . 16. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Participations: Superintendents' Opinions Compared to Those of the Faculty Members . . 17. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances: Superintendents' Opinions Compared to Those of the Faculty Members . . 18. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Attributes: Superintendents' Opinions Compared to Those of the Faculty Members . . 19. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Participations: Faculty Members' Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists . . . 20. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances: Faculty Members' Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists . . . vi Page . 108 . 110 . 124 . 128 . 148 . 156 . 159 . 163 . 171 . 172 Table Page 21. Expectations for the School Psychologist's Attributes: Faculty Members1 Opinions Compared to Those of the Psychologists .... 176 22. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Superintendents' Group ...................... 185 23. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Superintendents' Group ...................... 187 24. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Superintendents* Group ...................... 189 25. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Superintendents' G r o u p ..........................198 26. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Superintendents' Group ....................... 211 27. low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Superintendents' Group ....................... 213 28. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Psychologists* Group . . . ................... 218 29. low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Psychologists* Group ......................... 220 30. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Psychologists* Group ............... ..... 223 Table Page 31. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Psychologists' Group ......................... 233 32. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Psychologists' Group ......................... 245 33. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Psychologists* Group ......................... 247 34. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Faculty Group................................... 254 35. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Participations Instrument for the Faculty Group.................................... 256 36. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Faculty Group .................................. 259 37. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Performances Instrument for the Faculty Group .................................. 268 38. High Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Faculty Group .................................. 280 39. Low Intraposition Consensus Items from the Attributes Instrument for the Faculty Group.......... 283 40. Distribution of the School Psychologist's Performances as Ranked by the Superintendents.................................. 291 | _ ' viii Table Page 41. Distribution of the School Psychologist's Performances as Ranked by the Psychologists ................................... 295 42. Distribution of the School Psychologist's Performances as Ranked by the Faculty Members.......................................... 298 43. Distribution of Frequency of the Psychologist's Actual Performances ........................... 309 CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM AMD PROCEDURE The number of psychologists employed in the schools of California has increased rapidly since World War II. In 1955, according to the Chief of the Bureau of Special Education of the California State Department of Education, this increase was due to the 1947 legislation providing for the education of mentally retarded minors (101:v). Legal requirements provided for psychologists to determine the eligibility of children for this type of educational pro gram. In 1950 there were approximately fifty psycholo gists employed in California public schools. In 1958 there were over five hundred psychologists employed by schools. The California State Superintendent of Public Instruction stated that this change in the number of school psycholo gists has been accompanied by an equally great change in the responsibilities assigned the psychologists (100:v). 1 The evolution o£ the responsibilities of the school psychologist is evident in a study conducted by the Cali fornia Association of School Psychologists and Psycho- metrists in 1955 (107). California school administrators and psychologists were surveyed to determine what they con sidered the major responsibilities of the school psycholo gist to be. This group of California educators listed such diverse functions as: individual child appraisal, group testing planning and administration, direct therapy or counseling with pupils, consultation with parents, con sultation with school personnel, in-service education, and educational planning. It seems apparent from the above list of assignments that school psychologists are playing increasingly important roles in the schools of California. The Problem Statement of the problem The present study was concerned with the analysis of the multiple roles of school psychologists employed by school districts in the State of California. The purposes of the investigation were to ascertain the following: (1) expectations for the school psychologist's performances (2) expectations for the school psychologist's attributes; and (3) expectations for the school psychologist's par ticipations. An additional dimension of the study was to dis cover how important the functions were, and the frequency with which they were being performed by school psycholo gists. In regard to expectations for the school psycholo gist's performances, participations, and attributes the answers to the following questions were sought: 1. What is the degree of consensus among school psychologists on the expectations they hold for incumbents of their position? 2. What is the degree of consensus among school superintendents on the expectations they hold for the position of the school psychologist? 3. What is the degree of consensus among college and university faculty members on the ex pectations they hold for the position of school psychologist? 4. Is there agreement or disagreement between school superintendents and school psychologists on each of the items in the three role defini tion instruments? Is there agreement or disagreement between school psychologists and college or university faculty members on each of the items in the three role definition instruments? Is there agreement or disagreement between school superintendents and college or univer sity faculty members on each of the items in the three role definition instruments? What is the degree of importance that school psychologists attach to the performances of incumbents of their position? What is the degree of importance that school superintendents attach to the performances of school psychologists? What is the degree of importance that college or university faculty members attach to the performances of school psychologists? What is the relative frequency with which school psychologists perform specific functions of their position? 11. Are school psychologists performing the functions In the order of Importance that school superintendents, faculty members, and school psychologists attach to them? Importance of the Study It will be shown subsequently in the chapter on related literature, that school psychology is rapidly emerging as a specific field of endeavor within education. School psychologists and administrators are increasingly more concerned with the variety of roles that school psy chologists are asked to perform. Examination of the literature reveals that school psychologists evaluate chil dren to help them in their educational progress. They serve as consultants to teachers, administrators, and parents. School psychologists participate in curriculum development as well as educational administration and organization. They conduct research into educational tech niques and problems. The school psychologist of today i participates, in some measure, in all of the activities of the school. The variations in the roles performed by school psychologists have been a major element in the ever expand* ing growth of the profession. As a result of individual competencies and interests school psychologists have de veloped a hierarchy of importance which they attach to the many roles expected of them. Situations in local school organizations also may contribute to the differences in the functions performed by school psychologists. Thus, it appears that incumbents of the school psychologist position are performing many different professional roles. The records of the annual conventions of the Cali fornia Association of School Psychologists and Psycho- metrists show that most of these meetings have been con cerned with defining and redefining the roles of the school psychologist. Since its inception in 1950 this organiza tion, which represents the majority of the school psy chologists employed in California, has served to provide a means whereby school psychology can be assessed and evaluated. Despite its obvious interest there exists no material evidence to indicate that the Association or any of its members has conducted a thorough investigation into the role of the school psychologist. The present study was the first statewide, comprehensive investigation that had been made to analyze the role of the school psychologist. It made available to professional groups, such as the California Association of School Psychologists and Psychometrists, and to indi viduals, up-to-date information about the views held by those persons most concerned with defining the role of the school psychologist. The replies from the participants provided data which are of importance in considering the performances, attributes, and participations of school psychologists. The data yielded by the study enabled individuals to con sider their opinions in light of those held by other role definers. A study was conducted by Levine about the training programs for school psychologists in California (63:123- 126). He surveyed universities and colleges to gather specific information relating to prerequisites, course sequence, screening procedures, teaching experience re quirements, internship experiences, types of agencies, and institutional facilities utilized in training programs for school psychologists. Levine concluded from the replies received that there is a wide diversity of practices in all of the areas considered. According to Levine the differences may reflect the fact that such training is in its infancy. He stated also that the differences may re flect the differences in services and functions actually performed by the school psychologist. The opinion was offered by Levine that there has not been enough concern with the questions of who is trained, how such training is accomplished, and for what purpose such training is provided. He concluded his report with the following comment: Further there is serious need for some thorough re search on the role of the school psychologist and the relationship of this role to the field of psychology generally. It is no longer acceptable to define these matters in terms of partially and imperfectly declared credential regulations or in terms of highly variable academic programs. (63:126) Scone of the Study Delimitations For the purposes of the study the groups of role definers were limited to school psychologists, school jsuperintendents, and university or college faculty members. i The inclusion of psychologists was obvious. Superintend ents were included as role definers since they are the j chief administrative officers of local school districts. I As such they are charged with the primary responsibility for assigning the various jobs to their staff members, in cluding the school psychologist. The faculty members have the responsibility for providing the professional prepa ration that qualifies the person for employment as a school psychologist. The study was confined to elementary, secondary, and unified school districts in the State of California. County schools office personnel were also included since in many rural counties psychological services are provided only by personnel from that office. In the metropolitan areas county office psychologists often serve as coordi nators between psychologists employed by local districts. As such they are many times instrumental in defining functions of the school psychologist. Assumptions.— It was necessary in the study to make several critical assumptions. The rationale for making these assumptions will be presented in a detailed state ment. ! As is explained on page 50 the assumption was made that the research design of the School Executive Studies, ;if duplicated accurately, would provide a sound basis for jthe present investigation. It was assumed that the 10 educational institution where the individual role definer received his professional preparation would have an impact on his perception of the role of the school psychologist. The reasons for making such an assumption are given on page 62. Another assumption that was made, as shown on page 65, was that a person holding a valid school psycholo gist credential and working in a professional position of a psychological nature would behave in the role of the school psychologist. At the same time a similar assumption was made that other role definers would view this person in the role of the school psychologist. Another assumption that was made was that an indi vidual employed in the public schools in a psychological position whose name was found in the Certified Psycholo gists Directory 1960 held a valid school psychologist credential in the year 1960. The rationale for this assumption is stated on page 66. The reasons for making a final assumption are given in detail on page 78 and further documented on page 305. The assumption was that the behavior of individuals when they are serving in a position is related to the expecta tions that they have f°r that position. Another aspect 11 ! of the assumption was that the incumbent' s behavior is also affected by the expectations of other persons. Definition of Terms The following terms are used in the study as de fined, therefore they are not necessarily documented al though in some cases they are explained: School Psychologist.— The term "school psycholo- gist" is used to describe the position of the person who performs psychological services in school districts and who holds a valid school psychologist credential. Superintendent.--The term "superintendent" is used in the study to designate the administrative head of a school district or county schools office and includes those individuals having the title associate or assistant super intendent. Role Definers.--The term "role definers" is used to identify the individuals who participated in the study. Expectation. - -An expectation is an evaluative {standard applied to an incumbent of a position. 12 Role.— A role Is a set o£ expectations applied to an incumbent of a particular position. Role Attribute.— A role attribute is an actual quality of an incumbent of a position which can be referred to as an expectation for an incumbent of that position. Organization of the Study The study is organized in relation to the problem that is involved. Chapter II deals with related studies and literature about school psychologists and the measure ment of their roles. Chapter III includes a detailed presentation of the procedures used in the study. The pur pose of Chapter IV is to provide an analysis of the per sonal data of the role definers who took part in the investigation. An analysis of the role expectation items for which there was a statistically significant difference is set forth in Chapter V. The intraposition consensus among the individual groups of role definers is discussed in Chapter VI. The relative importance that role definers attached to the functions of the school psychologist is described in Chapter VII. The frequency of the actual | 13 ! performances of school psychologists Is given in Chap* i iter VIII. The final chapter contains the summary, con* elusions, and recommendations of the study. CHAPTER II RELATED RESEARCH AND LITERATURE ABOUT SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS AND THE MEASUREMENT OF THEIR ROLES Because of the relative recency of school psy chology as a specific professional occupation there has not been developed the great body of written material that exists for many other professions. The literature is limited mainly to the articles written by members of the profession setting forth their experiences, opinions, or conclusions resulting from those experiences. At the pres ent time there seems to be only two books which are devoted solely to school psychology and the school psychologist. One volume is the report of the conference held in 1954 by the Division of School Psychologists of the American Psy chological Association (2). The other book, edited by the Gottsegens, is made up of twenty-two chapters written by leaders in the field who are concerned with the major areas of endeavor of school psychologists (4). 15 Research about the professional responsibilities of school psychologists is very limited. Several studies have been conducted to determine the actual duties of school psychologists. This chapter presents an overview of the existing literature. Included are opinions as well as empirical studies. Since the present study was concerned with the analysis of the role of the school psychologist a section of this chapter is devoted to the consideration of the literature about role theory. Finally, a brief review of the School Executive Studies is presented as the design of that investigation was used as the model for the present study. Literature About School Psychologists The editors of the Minnesota Journal of Education put the question, "Why have school psychological services?" to several outstanding Minnesota educators. Walter W. Cook, Dean of the College of Education, University of Minnesota, replied by stating that the school is engaged in a psychological enterprise. Every aspect of education modifies human behavior. Cook continued his statement by 16 noting that the educational process applies to every valid psychological principle (31:14** 15 ). Gottsegen stated that school psychology is a prac ticing discipline. As such it is. concerned with the manner in which educational, social, and emotional growth is affected and modified by the school experience (4:2). Definitions of school psychologist Many authors have offered their definition of the school psychologist. The school psychologist was defined by Cassell as a diagnostician who is concerned with inte grating and coordinating the total facilities of the school and community towards meeting the psychological needs of students. He said that the psychologist provides technical competence that goes beyond the training of other school staff members (27:23). According to SymondsT definition the school psy chologist is simply a psychologist in the school. He elaborated by stating that the school psychologist is the trained specialist who can discover and interpret the mean ing of psychological forces at work in a school and hence make possible a more enlightened attack on the problems of adjustment of individuals (91:173). 17 The school psychologist Is a member of a team, con cluded Hathaway and Olson. This team of teachers, adminis trators, social workers, physicians, counselors, and psy chologists engages in the challenging task of facilitating learning and improving the quality of education (48:13). A Southern Regional Education Board Commission decided that the growing demand for psychologists to serve in the public schools has not crystallized into a clear definition of the exact functions to be served by the school psychologist. They continued by saying that school authorities feel a need for psychologists but are not en tirely clear on ways through which psychologists can make their greatest contributions in the schools (105:2-3). Barnhart and Balduf concluded that it is difficult to define the work of the school psychologist. This diffi culty arises, as they stated, because the title of school psychologist has been used in many systems to identify specialists whose particular function depends upon many factors, such as precedent, tradition, or the nature of the initial need for a specialized skill (19:49). Allen felt that the image of the school psycholo gist is clouded by the many-faceted perceptions of 18 teachers, principals, school boards, and others. Also, new educational concepts create demands for more varied psychological services. The variation of these services causes an unstructured, uncrystallized image of the school psychologist (14:136). One California educator expressed the concern that he believes the school psychologist is seeing his role increasingly as that of a clinician. In speaking to a group of California school psychologists Coladarci defined the role of the clinician as the diagnostic and therapeutic responsibility for the adjustment deviate in the school population. Coladarci recommended that instead of this limited clinical role the school psychologist should fill a greater need by serving as a general psychologist in education (30:445-446). History of school psychology As in any other human pursuit history has played its part in the emerging roles of the school psychologist. Not only is there some disagreement at this time in the literature about the profession of school psychology, there is some confusion as to its history. A 1923 article is often quoted in the literature as the first reference on 19 school psychologists, but Wallin said this Is not so (94:309-312). It Is obvious, he stated, that the concept of the school psychologist was envisaged long before 1923. Wallin noted that his own article attempting to describe the functions of a school psychologist appeared in the Western Journal of Education in 1909. Wallin's article presented an historical account of the development of school psychology. As one who was present through most of the period, he made a plea for his torical accuracy. Wallin reported that Chicago was the first public school system in the United States to employ school psychologists. A Department of Child Study and Pedagogic Investigation was established there in 1899. The Laboratory studied problems of physical and mental growth. It made measurements and established anthropological norms. The Laboratory also made individual studies of blind, deaf, truant, subnormal, and other types of children with prob lems. After the first few years the psychologists in the Laboratory examined teacher candidates for admission to city normal schools and children for classes for sub normals . Wallin noted further that the Child Study j 20 Department was established by the Rochester Public Schools in 1907. In 1911 the Public School Psychological Labora tory was founded in the Cincinnati schools. Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Baltimore soon followed suit by founding their own psychological services (94:309-312). A similar chronology was followed by Porter (78:131-133). He pointed out that by the 1930's some states had certification for school psychologists. Prior to World War II school psychologists were employed, in the main, by large city school districts. In 1946 the Division of School Psychologists was organized as a sub-organization of the American Psychological Association. A milestone in the professionalization process of school psychology was the so-called Thayer Conference held in 1954. This conference was sponsored by the Education and Training Board of the American Psychological Associ ation with funds made available by the Public Health Service, Uhited States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Participants were selected because they were working as school psychologists or because their work had a bearing upon the functions of school psychologists; thus jthey would be sensitive to the many problems in school i i l 21 ■ j psychology. The Conference was held at the Hotel Thayer, West Point, Haw York, from August 22 to August 31, 1954. The Conference was concerned with several major areas of school psychology. The Committees established four areas for examination. These areas were: role of the psychologist in the schools; duties, competencies, and training of school psychologists (2:8-15). The important findings and conclusions of the Con ference were recorded, and published in 1955 by the Ameri can Psychological Association. The volume which has become a classic in the field of school psychology is entitled School Psychologists at Mid-Century (2). Subsequently the Division of School Psychologists of the American Psychological Association appointed another committee to reconsider the functions of school psycholo gists. This committee was given the assignment to deter mine whether a reasonable consensus could be obtained regarding the functions of school psychologists. The re- port of this committee was also published by the American Psychological Association. This document appeared in jOctober of 1958 under the title, The Psychologist on the i School Staff (104). The importance of this report to the present study is considered in detail in Chapter III. 22 Functions of school psychologists Authors, through the years, have written their description of the duties and functions of the school psy** chologist. In a 1925 article Walter suggested six major areas of importance to school psychologists. These func tions were: (1) direction of the group testing program within the school system; (2) diagnosis and therapeutic techniques for' problem cases— as the mentally retarded child, the superior child doing inferior work, the child who has a special ability, and the child whose behavior does not meet the standards of the school; (3) analysis and disposal of problem cases; (4) scrutiny of educative prob lems; (5) conduct of research problems; and (6) contribu tions to the general theory and practice of education (95:167). In 1936 Cornell wrote an article which focused on the responsibility of the school psychologist in working with child adjustment problems. She described three ways of accomplishing this task: (1) through a special point of view; (2) through liaison between the child and teacher, between the teacher and principal, and between school and school; and (3) through use of special diagnostic and 23 ianalytical techniques. Cornell indicated further that a i : wide variety of services could be rendered by the school psychologist if he were not expected to carry too heavy a testing load. Her conclusion was that a school psycholo gist should be chosen for his particular skill in the areas most needed by a school (33:561-566). A list of the functions of the school psychologists employed by the Bureau of Child Guidance, New York City Schools, was presented by Krugman in 1942. The ten jobs which he listed were all pupil classification responsi bilities. They were as follows: (1) demonstration of classification procedures in an entire school; (2) surveys of first grade and pre-school children; (3) referrals o f individual children for various reasons to the Bureau; (4) organization of classes for difficult children; (5) special schools for problem children; (6) classes for the gifted; (7) classification of pupils and the curriculum; (8) non-English speaking native Americans; (9) recent arrivals from culturally deprived areas of the country; and (10) classification of pupils for the senior high school (59:205-211). j "What the Public School Needs from the Psycholo gist" was the title of an article written by Baker, i 24 a superintendent of schools. Baker in 1942 submitted a list of six services which psychologists might perform. His suggestions included: (1) interpretation and follow-up of group tests; (2) remedial work in arithmetic, reading, and speech; (3) mental hygiene training of teachers, (4) organization of records and reports; (5) technical assistance in evaluating pupil progress and methods of re porting growth and development to parents; and (6) evalu ation of broader more intangible goals of education (17:177-180). A plea for a drastic change in the position of the school psychologist was made by Driscoll in 1950. She stated that the psychologist should be a trained co-worker in guidance and not just a test technician. The psycholo gist should be a leader in the community and a member of the educational team in matters of child guidance. Driscoll went on to divide the child guidance concept into four major categories: (1) work with teachers and parents |on pertinent aspects of emotional and personality develop ment of children; (2) use of such diagnostic techniques as observations, psychological tests of ability and person ality, interviewing, and case study; (3) use of such remedial techniques as re-education in school subjects, play therapy, and parent and adolescent counseling; and (4) ability to work with lay or professional groups in de velopment of sound practice in child guidance (37:204-211). In contrast to the previous author Revie recom mended in 1954 that school psychology be divided into two general kinds of services. The two he suggested are de fined as guidance and psychological services. Revie said that guidance services are those which involve the school as a whole. Some of the activities he included were: work ing with teachers in workshops on techniques such as test ing. interviewing, observing children and using records, conferring with administrators and supervisors to promote guidance in the school-wide program, and to hold meetings with parents. According to Revie psychological services are those which involve individual children and their teachers. This service is generally called case work. He stated that case work includes observing and testing the child, interviewing parents and teachers, and reporting test results and making recommendations (81:15). One of the outcomes of the American Psychological |Association's Thayer Conference was to suggest the 26 i I {functions of school psychologists. The report was pub- j 11shed in 1955 and included a statement that the school psychologist serves in an advisory capacity toj»chool per sonnel and performs the following functions: (1) measuring and interpreting the intellectual, social, and emotional development of children; (2) identifying exceptional chil dren and collaborating in the planning of appropriate edu cational and social placements and programs; (3) developing ways to facilitate the learning and adjustment of children; (4) encouraging and initiating research, and helping to utilize research findings; and (5) diagnosing educational and personal disabilities, and collaborating in the plan ning of re-educational programs (2:30). In the same year the California State Department of Education published a bulletin, The School Psychologist. This publication which was designed primarily to give help ful information to school psychologists in California provides a list of their duties. The duties of the school {psychologist enumerated in the bulletin were as follows: (1) informs school personnel and parents regarding the special services he is prepared to render; (2) accepts for study individuals referred to him by school personnel; 27 (3) studies the problems and potentialities of Individuals referred to him, formulates procedures to be followed in the cases of individuals studied, and provides or helps to provide the treatment needed; (4) confers with school per sonnel who are working with an individual studied regarding the results of the study, interprets his findings, recom mends the treatment needed to correct the individual's difficulty, and suggests ways in which all can cooperate in giving the treatment; (5) keeps informed regarding the various services available in the community that can be used in helping individuals to solve their problems and is prepared to secure the particular services for the indi vidual who needs them; (6) helps school personnel to under stand the problems and needs that children commonly have at different age levels; (7) helps school personnel to under stand the causes underlying various kinds of behavior and methods of helping each child develop desirable behavioral patterns; (8) helps members of the community understand the causes underlying various kinds of behavior and the intel lectual needs of children, youth, and adults; and (9) pro motes and engages in the research that is needed to help each child and youth to work successfully at a rate and 28 at a level commensurate with his potentialities (101:2-3). By 1959 Harrower and Goldstein concluded that while there were psychologists employed in a high percentage of the schools of the nation it would be some time before these psychologists could provide the best possible serv ices. They prepared a list of items that represented im provements in the services of school psychologists and indicated that these persons needed: (1) to have more time for research; (2) to evaluate curriculum materials; (3) to conduct studies of exceptional and non-conforming children; (4) to do studies of teacher-child interaction in the classroom; (5) to conduct studies of normal development of children; (6) to be relieved of the overwhelming pressure of direct service to children so that time is available for other types of endeavor; and (7) to do public relations work by letting teachers and parents know the benefits of psychological services (46:19). The most recent and comprehensive list of functions to be found in the literature is that developed by the Committee on Reconsideration of the Functions of the School Psychologist. The review of the literature in this chap ter has presented material published over the last 29 thirty-six years. All of the functions of school psycholo gists cited in the literature are included in the Committee on Reconsideration of the Functions of the School Psycholo gist report (104). Thus it seemed desirable to base the opinionaire used in the present study on this report. Studies about school psychologists Several studies conducted in the last two decades may be found in the literature. Generally these investi gations attempted to consider the duties of school psy chologists in the light of administrator and psychologist opinion. A study was done by Huey at Ohio State University in 1943, and data were obtained by a brief questionnaire sent to school psychologists and to administrators. The administrators included superintendents, elementary super visors, and principals. The geographical area in which the study was done included the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. An attempt was made in Huey's study to contact a psychologist in each school system employing such a person. Fifteen county and about twenty city superintendents were selected from each of the three states in such a way that 30 the various geographic sections of the tri-state region were represented. The psychologists were asked on Huey’s question naire to state their present functions and to list addi tional duties that they regarded as desirable. The administrators were asked to answer two questions: (1) what functions should a school psychologist serve, and (2) in what ways would these functions be of practical service to your schools? A questionnaire was used rather than a checklist in order to get the views of administrators and psychologists in their own words. The results of the survey were based on the re sponses from eleven organized psychological services repre senting about forty school psychologists and from seventy- nine administrators. These numbers represent 46 per cent of the psychologists and 42 per cent of the administrators asked to participate in the study. The returned questionnaires were analyzed by Huey. She summarized eleven categories of functions from the data. They were: (1) studying of children and young people; (2) scrutinizing of testing programs; (3) working with maladjustments; (4) determining desirable mental 31 hygiene practices; (5) examining counseling programs; (6) aiding in-service training; (7) helping community services; (8) providing guidance programs; (9) doing re search; (10) analyzing causes of poor attendance; and (11) cooperating with agencies. Huey concluded that psychologists seemed to view their tasks pretty much in terms of what they have been doing rather than the demands of the situation. Traditions of psychological service, Huey believed, account for this past dominated function. The administrators presented a challenge to psychologists to view their field more broadly according to Huey (53:234-239). In 1946 Shartle wrote a series of job descriptions about occupations in psychology. He gathered the informa tion that he used in the job description by sending job analysis questionnaires to psychologists employed by schools. After the returned questionnaires were analyzed Shartle summarized the public school duties of psycholo gists as follows: (1) administer individual and group tests to school children for purposes of diagnostic and remedial work, determining intelligence level and information rela tive to personal and social adjustment; (2) give various 32 types of intelligence, interest, achievement, aptitude, personality, and other tests interpreting results and writing up case study; (3) report findings to parents and teachers concerned; (4) perform and supervise therapy; (5) supervise remedial work of special classroom teacher and give aid as needed to improve pupil's rate of learning and to facilitate social adjustment; (6) confer with parents and teachers with regard to problems of instruc tional and remedial work; (7) lecture to groups or confer individually with parents and teachers and others concern ing psychological problems of pupils, (8) interview pupils concerning adjustment problems; (9) act as a consultant for curricular and education problems within the scope of work; (10) act as staff consultant to superintendent or staff committees in affairs involving psychological problems, and (11) supervise and plan school wide testing program and often supervise guidance work in the schools (89:559-582). A study was conducted by Cornell in New York State in 1952. Sixty-three psychologists working in 41 communi ties participated. The school districts that employed them varied in size from 50 to 200 teachers. The psychologists were asked to list the activities that they performed either regularly or occasionally. The results were tabu* lated and reported by percentage o£ the total group. For example, 100 per cent of the psychologists reported that they performed individual psychological examinations. Con ferencing with teachers and principals about individual children was an activity that 95 per cent of the respond ents performed occasionally or regularly. Ninety-one per cent of the group reported that they administered group tests regularly. A similar 91 per cent of the psycholo gists conferenced with parents. Of the total group 87 per cent regularly wrote diagnostic case reports. Contacts with agencies were made regularly or occasionally by 76 per cent of the psychologists. Seventy-five per cent of the group planned remedial instruction. Only 44 per cent of the participants indicated that they gave remedial instruc tion either regularly or occasionally (32:185-195). Several studies of the functions of school psy chologists were made in preparation for the Thayer Confer ence. These investigations served as starting points for the discussions by the participants. In one of these studies an analysis was made of reports which were received from 560 school psychologists working throughout the 34 United States. Of the psychologists who replied, 453 were employed in 219 school districts in 29 states, 85 were employed by counties, and 8 were employed by 5 states. All sizes of school districts were represented from 3 with an average daily attendance of less than 1,000 to 23 with 50,000 or more (2). The questionnaire that was sent to the psycholo gists contained a list of functions and asked that each be ranked in order of importance as a present function. Par ticipants were then asked to re-rank the functions accord ing to the individual's feelings of how the school psy chologist should operate to make the greatest contribution to the schools. According to the findings of this study in all districts, individual testing ranked first and interviews second in both the reports on present functions and the reports on desirable functions. The authors ranked the reports on present functions in descending order as fol lows: special education program; organizing, giving, inter preting group tests; clerical; in-service training of school personnel; public relations; administration and supervision; remedial work in basic skills and other areas; 35 education programs; and research. The desired functions, in general, say the authors, followed the same ranking except that clerical ranked lower and education programs higher. The report of this investigation stated that forty- eight replies mentioned some form of therapy. Also men tioned were staff conferences, follow-up studies, test construction, teaching the mentally retarded, and super vising interns. Functions also given top ranking by some of the respondents included individual testing, interviews, special education, group testing programs, child develop ment, in-service training, public relations, remedial work, and administration and supervision. The investigators reported that they ranked the data according to the size of the districts in which the psychologists worked. The principal differences were that psychologists in the larger districts had less responsi bility for special education and group testing but spent more time in clerical activities. The authors of this study concluded by ranking the functions school psychologists considered desirable. There was an implied desire for additional opportunities for 36 in-service training of teachers and for participation in developing the educational program. There was an expressed desire to do less clerical work, and some indicated they wished to do less in the way of group testing, special edu cation, and administration (2:32-33). One of the other studies conducted prior to the Thayer Conference involved interviews with superintendents of schools (2). Before the Conference members were asked to interview one or more school superintendents. Among the questions suggested were: (1) What are the functions of the school psychologist as you see them? (2) How do you think a school psychologist can contribute most to a school pro gram? Thirty-one reports were made of such interviews. Interviews were held with twenty-nine individual superin tendents and two groups of superintendents. There were fifteen superintendents in one group and eleven in the other. Every superintendent interviewed saw the need for school psychologists and was willing to express his views, according to this report. The group of fifteen superintendents included in this study consisted of administrative officers of rural schools who had met to consider mental health problems. 37 The report of their opinion states: These superintendents all wanted school psycho logical service. Almost half had sane psychological service in some of their schools. They all had access to child-guidance clinics conducted by the State Department of Mental Hygiene but found these clinics inadequate for two reasons: the lag between the time a pupil was referred and the time he was seen was too great, sometimes as much as six months; the clinic was not sufficiently related to the school. They wanted school psychologists to do two things: study indi vidual children with emotional problems; help to make teachers more sensitive to the needs of such children in order that something can be done about such prob lems early. (2:36) Twenty-five of the individual reports from the study included a statement to the effect that "the psy chologist is a specialist who helps teachers and principals with the educational and adjustment problems of children." The superintendents stressed actual work with teachers on individual problems and in-service training of teachers to understand children better and to promote better mental hygiene practices. Testing, including diagnosis and interpretation of test results, was mentioned in twenty-two reports of this study. Study of the individual child was included by eight more superintendents. Testing was also mentioned very often in answer to the question about how the psychologist could help most. Some of the superintendents who participated in this investigation had reservations about testing as a function of the psychologist. One superintendent said that the top-level psychologist should not be required to in clude testing among his duties. Two others said that the school psychologist should not give group tests. Only four of the superintendents failed to mention services other than testing which they expected from the school psycholo gist. In the reports of these interviews, therapy, treat ment, and individual counseling were mentioned by twelve superintendents, but one felt that the psychologist should do little direct therapy. That the psychologist often refers children to other agencies for treatment is shown by the fact that nine superintendents said that one of his duties is to act as a liaison officer with psychiatric and other services. Of the superintendents interviewed, fourteen thought a psychologist should consult on curriculum and instruction; eleven, that he should give assistance to parents; eight, that he should advise on over-all policies; two, that he should make recommendations to teachers for 39 remedial work but not to do the remedial teaching himself; two, that he should engage in public relations work; two, that he should conduct research; and one, that he should help in the selection and promotion of personnel (2:35-37). Prior to the Thayer Conference, Cornell analyzed the school psychologists functions which she found de scribed in the books listed in the Conference Bibliography. This analysis presents the functions under nine headings, as follows: 1. Diagnostic study of individual children, psychological appraisal and assessment of individuals (integration of information, individual testing, interpretation, and recommendations)--25 references. 2. Special and remedial education— 21 references. 3. General contributions to mental health of children and teachers— 18 references. 4. Classification of pupils— 18 references. 5. Therapeutic services to children--12 refer ences • 6. General contribution to school policy— 10 references. 7. Community contacts--7 references. 8. Research— 2 references. 9. Administrative duties— 1 reference. (2:35) 40 In 1956 a survey was conducted by the Research Committee of the California Association of School Psycholo- gists and Psychometrists. The survey asked the question, "What is the major responsibility of the school psycholo gist?" The two groups of respondents were identified as psychological workers and administrators. There were 127 of the former and 49 of the latter included in the study. The results of the survey were categorized by function and by participant group. The responses of the psychological workers were ranked by percentage of response from high to low as follows: (1) individual child ap praisal, including case study report; (2) consultation with parents; (3) consultation with school personnel; (4) in- service education; (5) direct therapy or counseling with pupils; (6) study of the educability of the handicapped, and projective testing, each received the same percentage of response; (7) individual testing; (8) educational plan ning; (9) group testing, planning; and (10) group testing, administration. The responses of the administrators to the question were also ranked from high to low. The ranking is as fol lows: (1) individual child appraisal; (2) consultation with 41 school personnel; (3) consultation with parents; (4) in- service education; (5) study of the educability of the handicapped; (6) direct therapy or counseling; (7) indi vidual testing; (8) educational planning; (9) projective testing; (10) group testing, planning; and (11) group testing, administration (107). Examination and study of the literature indicates that there has been through the years some general agree ment about the functions of the school psychologist. Dif ferences appear among individuals and groups when they attempt to place a hierarchy of value upon the separate functions of the school psychologist. Apparently psycholo gists and others are willing to say what functions are important but are unable to determine clearly the degree of importance. Attributes of school psychologists There is almost nothing in the literature pertain ing to the personal attributes of the school psychologist. Authors seem to have been more concerned with the job functions of school psychologists than with determining their desirable characteristics. Members of the Thayer Conference, however, did 42 discuss the desirable characteristics of the school psy chologist. This group stressed that the school psycholo gist should: (1) have high intelligence; (2) be wholesome, attractive, emotionally mature, socially minded, outgoing; (3) be humble and have a sense of his own limitations; (4) be secure, even tempered, have a sense of humor, and be able to tolerate frustration when working with critical and antagonistic children and adults; (5) have a considerable understanding of himself and his own feelings and be able to handle his conflicts in a socially acceptable manner; (6) have by intuition and training, an insight that lets him understand individual children, groups of children, and classroom situations; and (7) be able to establish a con fident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds, a close sympathetic rapport (2:113-114). The various studies and literature mentioned in this chapter have stressed the functions and performances of school psychologists. Authors seem to agree in general about many kinds of jobs the school psychologist should perform. However, there seems to be little agreement amrmg them about the relative importance of these tasks. From the brief history of school psychology 43 presented in this chapter it appears school psychology had its origins at the end of the last century. Growth of school psychology continued in an orderly fashion up to the time of World War II. The postwar period has been marked by a rapid increase in the numbers of school psychologists. The desirable characteristics of school psycholo gists have not been explored to any degree nor has his general education and training. There are few references in the literature about these important aspects of the profession. Literature About Role Theory The concept of role has been used frequently in research into human behavior. Role theory has proved to be productive in providing a theoretical framework for the analysis of behavior of incumbents of positions in social systems. For the purposes of the present investigation role concepts were utilized to study empirically the posi tion of the school psychologist. The behavior of human beings who are incumbents of a specific position in society varies greatly. For example, teachers carry out the duties in many different 44 if not conflicting ways. Some teachers expect that chil dren should follow classroom routines without the slightest deviation from an arbitrary pattern while others encourage children to set their own individual limits and routines. This variability of behavior of incumbents of the same societal position is not random. The behavior of people is influenced by their own expectations as well as those of others in their society. Thus behavior has at least two major dimensions, that of self and that of the group or society in which the individual participates. Over the years many social scientists have been concerned with developing theories about role. Nearly thirty years ago Mead attempted to develop a theory about role. In his concept of role the unit of action was the person. The action occurring between persons Mead con sidered reciprocal. Thus if person A initiates action to person B, B’s response to A serves as a stimulus for A, in this manner interaction continues until terminated. Role theory is dependent upon this interaction concept for a large measure of its meaning (7). Murphy organized interaction into three levels of complexity. His first level of complexity was the 45 reciprocal action between persons. However, he elaborated by Indicating that these actions are organized into roles. The second of Murphy's levels was involved in interaction between the structure within the organism and the structure within the environment. In this concept human behavior is the product of interaction of self and role (8). According to Tolman a position in a social system is equivalent to an organized system of role expectations. In this concept role expectations are the variables inter vening between the stimulating conditions and the per formance of acts. These role expectations are cognitive and can only be inferred from the observation of overt phenomena or from the analysis of other data. Tolman de fined two general types of expectations. They were rights and obligations. According to his definition, rights are role expectations in which the actor of the role antici pates certain performances of the actor of the reciprocal role. Obligations are role expectations in which the actor |of the role anticipates* certain performances directed to ward the actor of a reciprocal role. A person cannot enact a role for which he lacks the necessary role expectations. | These are acquired through experience (92:291-299). 46 Sarbin attempted to summarize the literature on role theory. He noted in his summary that in role theory persons occupy positions in interactional situations and psychologically considered positions are cognitive systems of role expectations. These expectations are products of learning. Sarbin continued by stating that role expecta tions are bidimensional in that for every role expectation there is a reciprocal role expectation of self. The organ ized actions of the person, directed toward fulfilling these role expectations, comprise the role. Variation in role enactment is a function of at least three variables. These variables, according to Sarbin, were: (1) the validity of role perception; (2) skill in role enactment; and (3) the current organization of the self into a cog nitive structure that exercises a selective and directive effect on role perception and role enactment (10:255). Role expectations defined as anticipated actions or performances have been studied by means of opinionaires and i questionnaires. Motz developed a role conception inventory to determine (1) expectations of actions of self in the imarital relationship, and (2) expectations of actions ithat other occupants of the same position should perform ! ! | (68:465-471). A questionnaire was used by Rose to study 47 the adult role of women (84:69-77). An empirical study of the roles of women in relation to the effects of two world wars was made by Nottingham (73:666-675). Ort used the concept of role expectations in an investigation of the relationship of social class to role conflicts (75:425- 432). The literature about role theory provides concepts for the analysis of human behavior. Behavior of indi viduals in a society is thought to be influenced by role expectations. The role expectations result from the inter action between the structure within the individual's self and the structure within society. A position in society, such as the school psychologist occupies, is an organized system of role expectations. These role expectations are learned by the incumbents of a position in society. Role expectations have been and thus may be studied empirically. The School Executive Studies A search of the literature revealed that the most complete study of role analysis accomplished thus far was the School Executive Studies (5). This research program I initiated in 1952 was conducted at Harvard University. 48 The School Executive Studies were co-sponsored by the Laboratory of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education of the University. Major financial support for the School Executive Studies came from a grant of the Rockefeller Foundation. Additional support was received from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Milton Fund of Harvard University and the American Philosophical Society. Neal Gross, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and a member of the Department of Social Relations of Harvard University, was appointed di rector of the large staff which conducted the studies. There were two other major investigators. One of these men was Ward S. Mason. The other person was Alexander W. McEachem, who is at present Research Associate in the John Tracy Clinic at the University of Southern California. One of the major objectives of the School Executive Studies was to examine certain problem areas of central interest to students of social behavior. These areas of interest are twofold: role and role conflict analysis. A basic assumption of the Studies was that a carefully designed research program can use the methodological tools of the behavioral sciences to analyze strategic public policy problems. After the general objectives were established for the School Executive Studies it was necessary for the in vestigators to develop a research design. The position of school superintendent in the State of Massachusetts was selected for the focus of the research activities. The research procedures called for the gathering of data from school superintendents and school board members about the role of the superintendents. These data were gathered by means of interview and role expectation instruments. There were 105 superintendents and 508 school board members in cluded in the study. The data gathered served the purpose of providing evaluative standards for the position of school superin tendent and school board members. The role analysis examined the degree of consensus on the expectations for ithe behavior and attributes of incumbents of these posi tions. Two types of consensus were determined for the two i |positions being studied. Macroscopic consensus was de- ;fined as the role definitions of the 105 superintendents, i 50 I I of the 508 school board members, or the consensus between i the two samples on their role definitions. Microscopic consensus was restricted to an analysis of consensus within a school board and consensus between school board members and their superintendent. The investigators concluded their report of the School Executive Studies with the following statement: The perceptions of incumbents of any position with respect to the expectations to which they are exposed, the legitimacy of the expectations, and the probable sanctions resulting from failure to conform to them are all concepts which are capable of operational definition under almost any conceivable condition. Furthermore, whether or not position incumbents are primarily oriented to the legitimacy or to the sanc tions dimensions should be capable of operational specification no matter what the "absolute meaning of legitimacy and sanctions may be for different incum bents of different positions." The isolation of these relatively serviceable conceptual elements of a theory of role conflict resolution may prove suggestive for further empirical explorations. (5:318) The present investigation was concerned with ana lyzing the perceptions of school psychologists, school ! , superintendents, and college and university faculty members with regard to the role expectations of the position of |school psychologist. The design of the School Executive ! Studies served this purpose well. 51 Summary The literature about school psychologists and school psychology is limited generally to articles written by school psychologists and college or university faculty members setting forth their experiences and opinions or conclusions resulting from those experiences. Few investi gations have been undertaken in regard to school psycholo gists and school psychology. Most of this research was conducted preliminary to or as a result of the so-called Thayer Conference conducted in 1954 under the sponsorship of the American Psychological Association. Historically school psychology has developed in the present century. There was greater growth after each of two world wars. At the present time school psychologists are working throughout most of the nation and nearly all of the State of California. There are many statements in the literature about appropriate functions of school psychologists. The latest | land most comprehensive list of functions was developed and | published in 1958 by the American Psychological Associ ation. There seems to be much agreement evidenced in the i | literature about the functions of the school psychologist. There exist differences in opinion about the degree of im portance of the several functions of school psychologists. There has been little written about the character istics desirable or otherwise of school psychologists. Little if any research has been conducted in this area. There are many concepts presented in the literature about theories and methods of role analysis. A number of different studies have been conducted to analyze various roles in society. The most comprehensive study revealed in the literature was the School Executive Study accomplished at Harvard University. Because of the adequacy of the re search design of this study it was selected as a model for the present investigation. CHAPTER III PROCEDURES The procedures and methods used In the present study followed, In general, the research design of the School Executive Studies (5). A careful survey of the existing literature showed that the School Executive Studies were the most complete and carefully executed of the role analysis studies done to this time. Thus the assumption was made that the research activities of the School Executive Studies, if duplicated accurately, could provide a sound basis for the present investigation. The research methods were used to analyze the role of the school psychologist in California. The procedures employed opinionaires, survey techniques, and statistical analysis. In this chapter a detailed account is given about the development of the opinlonaire. The population of educators who participated in the study is described. The methods that were used to select the participants are set forth. This chapter also includes a complete statement 54 about the procedures of the survey. Finally, the details of the statistical analysis are presented. The Qpinionaire In this study data were gathered to discover the degree of consensus that exists among three chosen groups of role definers about the role of the school psychologist. The data were obtained by means of an opinionaire. A respondent was asked by means of the opinionaire, whether, and to what extent, he felt school psychologists should: (1) be doing certain things; (2) be participating in cer tain kinds of organizations or activities; and (3) possess specific qualities or characteristics. As was the case in the School Executive Studies, these three sections of the opinionaire are called role participation instruments. The specific titles of the three role expectation instruments were: (1) "Expectations for School Psychologist's Performances"; (2) "Expectations for School Psychologist'8 Participations"; and (3) "Expec tations for School Psychologist's Attributes." Five response categories were provided for each item of the three role expectation instruments. A par ticipant was asked to check for each statement of the 55 instruments one of the following sections: (1) absolutely must, (2) preferably should, (3) may or may not, (4) pre ferably should not, and (5) absolutely must not. The first instrument presented to the respondents in the opinionaire was the one called "Expectations for School Psychologist's Performances." The performances instrument contained ninety-four items. Each statement described a behavior which the psychologist can be expected or cannot be expected to participate in while on the job. The items were designed to cover as completely as possible the activities that the school psychologist engages in while carrying out his educational responsibilities. The performances instrument was developed from the report of the Committee on Reconsiderations of the Functions of the School Psychologist. This Committee was authorized by the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association. After two years of work the Committee pub lished its findings in the widely circulated document which they called, The Psychologist on the School Staff (104). It seemed logical to build the performances instru ment upon the comprehensive work of the Committee for several reasons. The Committee was made up of fifteen 56 leaders from the field of school psychology. These persons were appointed jointly by the President, and the Executive Committee of the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association. The Committee included school psychologists from both coasts and from Florida to Minnesota. Its members were employed in large cities, in suburbs, in smaller communities, and in rural areas. The individuals involved in this project had assignments in school psychology, as supervisors of other school psycholo gists, as subordinates to administrative heads of depart ments of school psychology, and as individual psychologists working without immediate psychological colleagues. The Committee on Reconsiderations of the Functions of the School Psychologist was assigned two major responsi bilities by the members of the Division of- School Psy chology of the American Psychological Association. The tasks were: to determine whether a reasonable consensus as to the functions of a school psychologist existed, and, if so, to prepare a clear factual statement of those func tions (104:2). The statement was to be worded in the language of the school administrator. It should be a description that would be useful to the staff of a school 57 system in planning new psychological services or in evalu ating already existing programs. In their final report the Committee stated that they were "little astounded" by the amount of agreement about the functions of the school psychologist. The Execu tive Committee of the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association authorized the report for publication and distribution to school administrators and to the psychological profession as representative of the functions of school psychologists. The "Expectations for School Psychologist's Per formances" instrument produced for this investigation in cludes the functions cited in The Psychologist on the School Staff (104). Care was exercised to word the state ments so that the meaning of the functions that the Com mittee had determined were not altered. The "Expectations for School Psychologist's Par ticipations" instrument contained eleven items. This instrument was developed after a careful search of the literature. Each statement specified some type of activity or participation in a professional organization. These pursuits may or may not be directly related to the job 58 responsibilities of school psychologists. Most of the items in the instrument were peripheral to actual require ments of the position of school psychologist. The items were designed to gather opinions about the outside activi ties of school psychologists that are important to their role. The "Expectations for School Psychologist's Attri butes" instrument contained thirty-five items. Each item was about a personal characteristic or quality of a school psychologist. Most items resulted from the survey of the literature. However, some of the statements were those that seemed appropriate to the qualities of incumbents of the position of school psychologist. For example, several items were included that probed for the role definer's opinions about the desirable age of school psychologists. The other items ranged in content from those that deal with educational qualifications to those that are descriptive of general personality characteristics of school psycholo gists. The opinionaire was designed to encourage the re sponse of the individuals to whom it was sent. For their convenience the opinionaire was printed by photo offset 59 lithography on a single sheet of paper 13 1/2 inches in width by 9 3/4 inches in length. The completed opinionaire also included, in addi tion to the three role definition instruments, four other sections that requested other data from the respondents. The four parts of the opinionaire were: (1) a covering explanatory letter from the investigator to the partici pants; (2) a checklist for ranking the performances of school psychologists according to their importance; (3) fill-in blanks and check-off items for identifying the respondents in regard to type of school organization and geographical location; and (4) a checklist for stipulating the frequency of actual duties engaged in by school psy chologists at the present time. That part of the opinionaire used for ranking the duties of school psychologists as they are now in effect represented a significant aspect of the problem being undertaken. The ninety-four items of the "Expectations for School Psychologist's Performances" instrument included a wide range of on-the-job activities of school psycholo gists. Because of limitations of time and energy as well as the preferences of the personnel of the school districts 60 within which they work it is necessary £or school psycholo gists to make choices in selecting that one of the ninety- four job responsibilities that is to take precedent over any other at a given moment. To measure this dimension of the role of the school psychologist the ninety-four job performances were grouped into ten representative headings. Participants were re quested to "indicate how Important you feel these per formances are by ranking them in order of importance from one to ten." To avoid confusion among the respondents number one was labeled "most important" and number ten was identified as "least important." The ten major headings that the ninety-four items from the performances instrument were classified into were: (1) Diagnostic Studies, (2) Follow-up of Studies, (3) Special Placements for Children, (4) Conferences with Pupils and Parents, (5) Consultant to Administrators, (6) Consultant to Teachers, (7) Group Test ing Program, (8) Curriculum Development, (9) Community Services, and (10) Research. Role definition is contingent upon the role definer and the organization within which the role is acted out, so the opinionaire provided for obtaining this information 61 from the respondents. Data were obtained about the type of institution that employed the respondent by means of a checklist. The participants were asked to check one of the following types of organizations: (1) College or Utiiver- sity, (2) County Schools Office, (3) Unified School Dis trict, (4) Secondary School District, and (5) Elementary School District. If the individual was employed by one of the three types of school districts he was asked to fill in two blanks. One of the blanks provided a place where the respondent could give the number of pupils enrolled in the local district. The other blank gave a space where the participant could indicate the number of psychologists em ployed by the local district. By means of the opinionaire respondents were asked to give two additional items of information about them selves. One request was for the "title of your position." The other item was in regard to the "Community where you are employed." An important assumption was made in the study. It was assumed that the institution triiere the respondent took ^ the major amount of his professional training had an impact upon his perceptions of the role of school psychologist. 62 The literature on role theory had several references to the fact that role perceptions are learned both by the incum bents of the position being considered and by other role definers. Hie initial professional learnings of an indi vidual usually take place in an institution of higher edu cation. Thus the institutions where the role definers took their professional training were important to a study that analyzed the role of the school psychologist. Of marked importance to the study were the data that were assembled about the duties that school psycholo gists were performing for their school districts. One of the goals of the study was to make a comparison between the opinions that role definers held about the relative im portance of the functions of school psychologists and the actual duties of the position as they existed. By making this comparison opinion was considered in relation to reality. To conduct this aspect of the study the ninety-four items from the "Expectations for School Psychologist's Per formances" instrument were sorted into the same categories that were used to obtain the respondent's opinions about the relative importance of the functions of the school 63 psychologist. The following statement was printed In the opinionaire: "If you are a school psychologist place a check in the appropriate column below Indicating the rela tive frequency with which you perform the specific func tions that are listed." The appropriate columns mentioned in the statement were labeled as follows: Very Often, Fairly Often, Occasionally, and Never. Studies were found in the literature which indi cated that role analysis could be conducted by means of an opinionaire. It was assumed therefore that the opinionaire that was carefully developed for the study could be used to analyze the role of the school psychologist. The Selection of Participants The investigation of the problem was limited, geo graphically, to the State of California. Since the study was concerned with the analysis of the role of the school psychologist there was a need to develop a list of indi viduals employed as school psychologists in California. The first source utilized to obtain the names of school psychologists was the Directory of Administrative and Supervisory Personnel of California Schools 1960-61 j |(108). While administrators of most school districts 64 included the names of their school psychologists in the Directory it could not necessarily be considered as a com plete list of this particular group of role definers. For this reason the second step in selecting the school psy chologist population for the study vas to refer to the Directory 1960-61 of the California Association of School Psychologists and Psychometrists (109). The California Association of School Psychologists and Psychometrists is a professional organization that claims membership of most of the school psychologists in California. Thus the Directory of the membership of this body was an important source of data about school psychologists. After perusing both of these directories it was clear that many personnel were engaged in school jobs of a psychological nature who were not called school psycholo gists. As many as thirty-nine different job titles of a psychological type were listed in the two directories. It was apparent that if only persons with the spe cific title of school psychologist were asked to partici pate, the study would be seriously limited. The relative small number of individuals serving in positions as school psychologists might not"be representative of the 65 profession. Other job titles of psychological workers were so similar that they should be included in the study. The decision was made that all individuals working in schools in positions that had titles similar to school psychologist would be requested to take part in the study. To attempt to limit the role to be studied to that of the school psychologist the stipulation was made that all par ticipants in the investigation be credentialed as school psychologists by the California State Board of Education. An assumption critical to the study was made at this point. It was assumed that a person holding the school psychologist credential and working in the schools in a position of a psychological nature would see himself behaving in the role of the school psychologist. A sub stantial aspect of the same assumption was that the other role definers would also view these individuals as school psychologists. If this assumption was valid, the role expectations for psychologists with titles similar to school psychologists would be the same as those expecta tions held for school psychologists. In view of the assumption it was necessary to find some reference that would indicate whether a person held 66 a valid School Psychologist Credential. No list of people credentialed as school psychologists was available from the California State Department of Education or from any other source. There seemed to be only one remaining method for locating persons who held the school psychologist creden tial. This process involved the use of the Certified Psychologists Directory 1960 (110). This directory was published by the Psychology Examining Committee of the Board of Medical Examiners of the Department of Profes sional and Vocational Standards of the State of California. The directory contained the names of persons certified as psychologists in California under the Psychology Certifica tion Act. Article 4, Section 2949 (4) of the Business and Professions Code of the State of California states that a certificate as a psychologist shall be granted to any per son who "holds a valid school psychologist credential issued by the State Board of Education prior to July 1, 1959" (110:14). Thus, it was assumed that individuals working in schools in psychological positions whose names were found in the Certified Psychologists Directory 1960 held a valid school psychologist credential. 67 The final criteria for the selection of individuals as school psychologist participants in the study was as follows: (1) be listed in the Directory of Administrative and Supervisory Personnel of California Schools 1960-61 as a psychologist; (2) be named in the -Directory 1960-61 of the California Association of School Psychologists and Psychometrists as a psychologist; and (3) if listed in either of these directories by any other title of a psy chological type the individual also must be named in the Certified Psychologists Directory 1960. The selection of school superintendents to take part in the study was a relatively simple matter once the participating school psychologists had been located. It seemed logical that only school superintendents who had had experience working with school psychologists should be in cluded in research about the role of the school psycholo gist. To conform to this limitation the only superintend ents asked to respond to the opinionaire were those who worked in school districts where school psychologists were employed. The presence of a school psychologist in a school district or county schools office meant that the superin tendent of that organization was sent an opinionaire. 68 The names of the superintendents who headed the school systems where the psychologist role deflners were employed were found in the Directory of Administrative and Super visory Personnel of California Schools 1960-61 (108). This group of school superintendents, who had school psycholo gists working in their schools, made up the list of re spondents for the superintendent role definer group. The participants who were college and university members were selected from the Directory 1960-61 of the California Association of School Psychologists and Psycho- metrists (109). Membership in this professional organiza tion was presumed to mean a special interest in and a familiarity with the role of the school psychologist. The Survey On January 3, 1961 opinionaires were mailed to 418 school psychologists. Two hundred twenty-seven opinion aires were sent to school district superintendents in Cali fornia. A total of thirty-seven opinionaires were posted to college and university faculty personnel. To encourage replies a self addressed and stamped envelope was included with each opinionaire. 69 By January 17, 1961, responses had been received from approximately 60 per cent of the participants. A follow-up postcard was printed by photo offset lithography. This standard sized postcard was mailed to all participants on January 23, 1961. There was no noticeable increase in the rate of return of the opinionaires as a result of this postcard. The procedure of a follow-up postcard apparently served no good purpose whatsoever in implementing partici pation. A copy of the postcard is included in Appendix B. Beginning on February 1, 1961, personal notes re questing replies to the opinionaire were sent to all respondents who could be identified as not having returned their opinionaire. Another opinionaire and return en velope were included with the note. In some cases follow-up notes were sent to indi viduals who had already completed the opinionaire. The design of the study provided for anonymous return of the opinionaire. The type of items printed on the opinionaire seemed to be of such a personal and professional nature that requesting identification, by name, might have seriously interfered with the completion of the investiga tion. However, more than 40 per cent of the respondents 70 voluntarily signed the opinionaire. Apparently the ques tion of anonymity of response was not critical. No follow-up was sent to persons who had signed the opinionaire. An apology was included in both the postcard and the personal note for the benefit of those who had already returned the opinionaire but who could not be identified as having done so. By April 1, 1961, a total of 354 usable responses had been received from school psychologists. This figure represented 85 per cent of the total number of opinionaires sent to school psychologists. One hundred seventy-eight usable opinionaires were returned by school superintendents. This number included 78 per cent of the total of school superintendents asked to participate in the study. Twenty-seven of the thirty-seven college and uni versity faculty members took part in the study. This figure represented 74 per cent of the entire group of col lege and university faculty members who were mailed opinionaires. Three school superintendents and six school psy chologists returned the opinionaire but not in time to be included in the statistical analysis. In addition, five school superintendents wrote letters stating that they did not feel qualified to reply to the items of the opinion-* aire. One school superintendent stated that his district had a policy that personnel of that district were not to return any type of opinionaire or questionnaire. According to his letter the number of studies of this type seriously increased the work load of the personnel of the district. Fifty-eight letters or notes were returned with opinionaires by the participants. This communication in cluded comments on the study, requests for abstracts of the findings, critiques of the research design, and wishes for success with the investigation. The Statistical Analysis When the completed opinionaires were returned it was necessary to conduct a statistical analysis to inter pret the opinions of the respondents. The data were tabulated and processed by International Business Machine equipment. The facilities of the Orange County Superin tendent of Schools Office, Division of Research and Test ing, were used for this purpose. The Western Data 72 Processing Center of the School of Business Administration of the University of California at Los Angeles also pro vided equipment and technical assistance. Each item from the opinionaire was coded according to the International Business Machine punch card system. The responses of the participants were punched, according to the coding, into the punch cards. Four separate Inter national Business Machine cards were used for each of the respondents in the research. After the data were punched into the cards it was possible to tabulate the returns both numerically and statistically. The cards were first sorted according to the identifying characteristics of the role definers. Each of the categories of identification items was summed for each of the three role definer groups. These data are presented in detail in Chapter IV. One of the purposes of the statistical treatment of the data was to determine consensus about each item from the role expectation instruments between role definer groups. Three distinct comparisons were made. The re sponses of the school superintendents were compared to those of the school psychologists. The opinions of the 73 superintendents as expressed in the role expectation instruments were also compared to the opinions of the faculty members. The final comparison that was made was between the school psychologists' opinions and the opinions of faculty members for each item from the three role ex pectation instruments. The statistical technique used for testing the sig nificance between two distributions was the Kolmogorov- Smimov Two-Sample Test. Siegel has commented cm this statistical procedure. He discussed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test as follows: When compared with the t test, the Rolmogorov- Smiraov test has high power-efficiency (about 96 per cent) for small samples. It would seem that as the sample size increases the power-efficiency would tend to decrease slightly. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test seems to be more powerful in all cases than either the chi-square test or the median test. (11:136) This statistical method was accomplished on the Inter national Business Machine 7090 computer. Questionnaire Analysis Program I (Mod. 4) Format 24 of the Western Data Processing Center was utilized for this analysis. The results of this aspect of the statistical analysis are given in Chapter V. 74 Another major purpose of the statistical analysis was to determine the degree of consensus among each of the groups of role definers for each item from the three role expectation instruments. The first step in this process was to set up a frequency distribution of the responses of the participants to each of the statements in the role definition instruments. Distributions were developed for the superintendents, psychologists, and faculty members by each statement— from the performances instrument, the attributes instrument, and the participations instrument. The number of responses in each of the five cate gories from "absolutely must" to "absolutely must not" were tallied by data processing equipment in the Orange County Schools Office. Each response category was given a numeri cal weight, ranging from one for the "absolutely must" category, to five for the "absolutely must not" category. With these weights an average deviation based on the mean could be calculated. The resulting measure of intrasample consensus was the variance of the distribution. The re searchers of the School Executive Studies state that the variance score has the following advantages: (1) the variance employs squared deviations, and it was felt to be desirable to magnify extreme deviations, particularly in view of the fact that the checklist included variations in intensity; (2) the variance score could be computed rela tively easily on International Business Machine equipment; and (3) the variance is a statistic vrtiich lends itself easily to a variety of statistical computations and manipu lations (5:115). The analysis of the consensus among role definer groups about the role of the school psychologist is presented in Chapter VI. One of the purposes of the study was to determine the participants' opinions about the relative importance of professional performances of school psychologists. After the items from the "Expectations for School Psychologist's Performances" instrument were categorized by ten major headings the participants were asked to rank the ten cate gories from one to ten. The number of responses of each of the three groups of role definers to the ten major headings were tabulated and tables prepared. The findings of this aspect of the study are presented in Chapter VII. The frequency of the performance by school psy chologists of their actual duties was analyzed in the same manner. The number of times that each of the ten major 76 statements about the school psychologist's performances were checked by the psychologist participants were tallied. For each of the four categories from "very often" to "never" a percentage of total response was calculated. A comparison could then be made between the opinions of role deflners about the performances of school psycholo gists and the duties as they exist at the present time. The data and the analysis of the relationship between opinion and fact are given in Chapter VIII. Summary In this chapter the procedures and methods used to study the role of the school psychologist in California have been presented. The development of the opinionaire was explained. The different parts of the opinionaire, in cluding the three role participation instruments, were set forth. Another section of the chapter dealt with the selection of the participants of the study. The criteria for the selection of the role definer groups were given. The specific details about the school superintendents, school psychologists, and college and university faculty 77 members were presented. The third section of the chapter developed the methods used in the survey. The questions about how many opinionaires were sent and to whom were answered. The final section of the chapter was concerned with the methods of the statistical analysis of the data gathered by the opinionaire. The two major statistical techniques were described and documented. CHAPTER IV THE PARTICIPANTS OR ROLE DEFINERS To investigate the problem of role consensus of any position in society it is necessary to gather data about the role expectations held by individuals for that posi tion. Role expectations are held by people for the posi tion in society which they occupy and for the positions of others. Thus, in any study of role the investigator must select a population of individuals who are incumbents of the role being studied as well as other persons who are concerned with the position under consideration. The assumption is made that the behavior of individuals vrtien they are serving in a position is related to the expecta tions that they have for that position. These incumbents' behavior is also affected by the expectations of others. According to the findings in the literature on role theory, role expectations are the result of several fac tors. The expectations that individuals hold for any given 78 79 position are learned. They can be taught to individuals by means of formal or informal procedures. Role expectations are related to the type of society or organization within society where the role is played out. The personal charac teristics of the persons involved in defining roles are also a factor in determining the expectations that they hold for a position (10). In this study the role to be analyzed was that of the psychologist employed in the schools of the State of California. For the research to be valid the populations selected to participate had to be those most concerned with defining the role of the school psychologist in actual practice. In the case of the school psychologist many persons, both on the school staff and outside of it, are involved in the definition of his role. Teachers, Princi pals, children, and parents are all involved in this pro cess. It was at this point that a delimitation was made in the study. School psychologists, school superintend ents, and college or university faculty members were se lected as the Individuals who would be asked to define the role of the school psychologist. Because these individuals 80 are involved in giving their opinions about the role of the school psychologist they are called role definers for the purposes of the study. The selection of school psychologists as role de finers was an obvious choice. The incumbents of a position are of great consequence in determining the role they are to play. The extent of the growth and the direction of the growth of school psychology are a result of the be havior of those individuals who are employed as school psy chologists. The expectations that school psychologists hold for their professional role is a major factor in determining their behavior on the job performances. In the State of California the school superintend ent of a school district serves as the chief administrative officer of that district. The superintendent is held responsible for the day-to-day activities of the staff in implementing the policies of the elected representatives of the people of the community, the Board of Trustees. As chief administrative officer the superintendent makes assignments and delegates responsibilities to the several staff members. The expectations that the superintendent holds for the behavior of the school psychologist are 81 critical factors In the duties that the psychologist will be assigned or allowed to perform within that district. The school psychologist is expected to work within the limitations set for him by the superintendent. College and university faculty members were also selected as role deflners in the study. School psychology is a profession that requires certification by the State Board of Education. This certification is dependent upon levels of training set by the Board and by the Legislature of the State of California. This training is accomplished at colleges and universities. The educational process accomplished at these institutions is conducted by faculty members. It is presumed that each of the faculty members of the educational institutions has expectations for the role of the school psychologist. Course content of classes for future school psychologists probably reflect these expecta tions. As a result of the views held by faculty members school psychologists' expectations for their own behavior may be influenced very early in their careers. Many school psychologists continue their professional education through in-service training programs conducted by local colleges 82 and universities. Thus, school psychologists may be ex posed continually to the expectations that their instruc tors hold £or the position of school psychologist. It was decided that the study would have additional meaning if something were known about the educational back ground of the role definers. It was assumed that the role definers would be considering the role of the school psy chologist as it exists in the organization that employs them. For this reason, additional data were requested from the role definers about their school system. Sections of the opinionaire were organized so this information could be obtained from each respondent. In this chapter the information that the role de finers gave about themselves is presented. The character istics of the school psychologist group of role definers are considered first. In the next section of the chapter the data that were gathered from the superintendents are presented. Finally, the results of the tabulation of the I personal data from the faculty members are given. In this manner, the findings and results of the study can be con sidered in light of some knowledge about the role definers. I 1 The School Psychologists 83 In this section of the chapter the titles of the psychologist role definers are presented. Geographical location is considered by giving the names of the counties in California where the psychologists were employed. The types of school system organization where the psychologists were employed are noted. The size of the psychologists' school districts by pupil enrollment is examined. The num bers of psychologists employed by districts are enumerated. Finally, the names of the educational institutions where the psychologists took the major amount of their profes sional training are presented. Job titles of psychological participants The persons included in the study either held the title of school psychologist or the school psychologist credential granted by the State Board of Education. Each of the respondents was employed as a school psychologist or in a position of a psychological nature at the time of the investigation. The research was limited to school systems within the State of California. 84 Individuals participating in the study held thirty- seven different categories of job titles. The number of individuals in each category is given in Table 1. The « response as to title most numerous was that of school psy chologist. One hundred and nine persons, or 30 per cent of the respondents, held this title. The single term psy chologist, without a prefacing title, was used by seventy- six persons, or 21 per cent of the answering group. Thirty-four persons, or 10 per cent of this group, had duties that qualify them for the name of district psy chologist. The term psychologist was involved in some manner in the titles of 66 per cent of the respondents. Director was a title held by 15 per cent of the group. This term seemed to imply administrative responsibilities in the field of school psychology. The term coordinator appeared for 3 per cent of the workers in psychological positions in the schools. Consultant was the title given to 12 per cent of the participants. The respondents who identified them selves as being employed in the Los Angeles City Schools were entitled counselor. They represented 2 per cent of the group. 85 TABLE 1 TITLES OF PERSONS PERFORMING PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES Number of Per cent of Titles of Positions Held Individuals Total Psychologists 76 Consulting 3 School 109 District 34 Head 2 For Special Education 2 Senior 3 Supervisory 2 Research __1 232 66.0 Director Special Services 5 Psychologists and Guidance 1 Guidance 18 Special Education 3 Guidance and Research 9 Research 6 Pupil Personnel 4 Research and Special Services 2 Guidance Services 3 Psychological Services 12 53 14.5 Consultant 4 Guidance 27 Psychological 5 Research and Guidance 6 Special Education and Guidance _JL 43 12.0 86 TABLE 1— Continued Number of Per cent of Titles of Positions Held Individuals Total Coordinator Guidance Counseling Evaluation Guidance and Special Education Special Education Research Child Welfare 12 3.0 Supervisor Psychological Services 1 Guidance and Research 3 Special Education 2 ; Counselor Elementary 4 Secondary 2 6 2.0 No Answer 2 .5 354 100.0 87 Of the six major categories of names for psycho logical personnel many had the term psychologist or psy chological In them. In the participating group 68 per cent had jobs which were described as psychologist or psycho logical. This fact would seem to strengthen the perception of role by the role definers since the positions are, for the most part, clearly psychological In nature. Counties where psychologists are employed There are fifty-eight counties in the State of California. Participants worked in forty-three of the fifty-eight counties. Consideration of Table 2 shows that Los Angeles County had eighty-six persons, or 24 per cent of the total psychologist respondents. The proportion of return from the other counties of the state were appro priate when considered in regard to the numbers of psy chologists employed In them. All sections of the State of California were represented in the study. Types of school organizations where psychologists were employed Psychologists from four types of school district organizations were invited to participate in the research. The four organizational structures were as follows: county 88 TABLE 2 DISTRIBUTION OF COUNTIES ACCORDING TO PSYCHOLOGISTS EMPLOYED IN EACH Name of County Number of Psychologists Per Alameda 20 5 Amador 2 4 Butte 3 Calaveras 1 Contra Costa 13 3 El Dorado 1 Fresno 3 Humboldt 4 1 Imperial 1 Kern 7 1 Kings 3 Los Angeles 86 24 Madera 2 Marin 9 2 Mendocino 1 Merced 3 Monterey 6 1 Napa 1 Orange 25 7 Placer 4 1 Plumas 1 Riverside 11 3 Sacramento 16 4 San Bernardino 7 1 San Diego 20 5 San Francisco 5 1 San Joaquin 5 1 San Luis Obispo 5 1 San Mateo 17 4 Santa Barbara 6 1 Santa Clara 22 6 Santa Cruz 3 « O W M U ) U i U l U l M t O U K ) U O O U > J V O W U O \ U « O v O U > O v O U O t U ' 0 9 t N l 89 TABLE 2— Continued Name of County Number of Psychologists Per cent Shasta 1 .3 Siskiyou 1 .3 Solano 2 .6 Sonoma 6 1.7 Stanislaus 7 1.9 Sutter 2 . 6 Tulare 9 2.5 Ventura 6 1.7 Yolo 3 .9 Yuba 1 .3 No Answer 3 .9 Total 354 100.0 v0U>vO'*JinONVO'»JO>U>U> 90 schools offices, unified school districts, secondary school districts, and elementary school districts. Typically, county school offices provide services of psychologists on a part week basis to small school districts. Unified school districts include kindergarten through grade twelve. Secondary schools are organized usually from the ninth to the twelfth grades. In sane cases the secondary schools include the seventh and eighth grades. The grades from kindergarten to sixth are always included in the elementary school district unless it is a unified district. In many cases the seventh and eighth grades are also a part of the elementary district. The largest number of psychologists taking part in the investigation were members of the staff of county schools offices. This group, serving mostly in the rural areas of California, made up 31 per cent of the total par ticipants. The next largest group represented were em ployed by unified school districts. One hundred persons, or 28 per cent of the total, fell in this group. An almost equal number of the respondents worked for elementary school districts. This group of ninety-seven psychologists made up 27 per cent of the participants. The smallest 91 group shown in Table 3 are those from the secondary school districts. This type of school organization employed 11 per cent of the total respondents. Size of districts by pupil enrollment Respondents were asked to give the enrollment of pupils in the district that employed them. Apparently psychologists did not feel this question was appropriate or did not have the information. Table 4 indicates that 115 psychologists, o~ 32 per cent of the total, did not answer the question. Of the remaining 68 per cent of the psy chologists the largest group fell in the category of 2,500 to 4,999 pupils enrolled in the school district. This group of fifty-five psychologists was 16 per cent of the total. The remaining psychologists were rather evenly distributed among school districts in the other size cate gories. One other factor accounting for the lack of re sponse to this question may lie in the nature of the responsibilities of school psychologists employed by county schools offices. One psychologist may serve several dis tricts or might have coordination duties throughout the county. If this were the case it might have been difficult 92 TABLE 3 DISTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS ACCORDING TO TYPE OF EMPLOYING AGENCY Number of Organization Psychologists Per cent County Schools Office 108 31 Unified School Districts 100 28 Secondary School Districts 38 11 Elementary School Districts 97 27 No Answer 11 3 354 100 93 TABLE 4 DISTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS ACCORDING TO ENROLLMENT OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN WHICH THEY WERE EMPLOYED Number of Number of Pupils Psychologists Per cent of Enrolled in from District Total the District of this Size Psychologists 0 to 2,499 11 3 2,500 to 4,999 55 16 5,000 to 7,499 40 11 7,500 to 9,999 26 7 10,000 to 14,999 38 11 15,000 to 19,999 15 4 20,000 to 34,999 28 8 35,000 to 49,999 9 3 50,000 to 74,999 4 1 75,000 to 99,999 4 1 100,000 or more 9 3 No Answer 115 32 Total 354 100 94 for him to give the size of all of the districts where he had responsibilities. Number of psychologists employed bv districts Table 5 shows that ninety-eight of the psycholo gists worked alone in their school district. This figure represents 28 per cent of the total. Forty-eight, or 14 per cent of the participants, said that they had one colleague working with them. A total of twenty-four psy chologists, or 7 per cent of the group, indicated that there were three persons sharing the duties in their dis tricts. Four psychologists worked in the districts of 6 per cent of the respondents. The remaining 45 per cent of the participating school psychologists were employed by school districts that have from five to twenty-five psy chologists on the staff. These findings were Important to the study. The "Expectations for School Psychologist's Performances" instrument contained ninety-four statements about the duties of school psychologists. This would seem to indi cate that if a school district had only one psychologist he might be called upon to perform a number of different services. On the other hand in a large school district 95 TABLE 5 DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS EMPLOYED IN EACH School Districts Number of ------------------------------- Psychologists Number Per cent 1 98 28.0 1 1/2 5 1.4 2 48 14.0 2 1/2 4 1.1 3 24 7.0 3 1/2 1 .2 4 21 5.0 5 11 3.0 5 1/2 1 .2 6 9 2.5 7 9 2.5 8 2 .5 10 2 .5 15 1 .2 20 1 .2 24 1 .2 25 2 .5 No Answer 114 32.0 Total 354 100.0 |OUiN?N)t0UiUiUiWnr0OOK)OMO-P*O 96 the many responsibilities might be delegated in blocks to individuals on the basis of personal preference or some other criteria. Therefore, the number of school psycholo gists employed in a district might affect the role de- finers* perceptions. Institutions where psychologists took their training School psychologists were asked to list the insti tutions where they took the major amount of their work in education or educational psychology. The returns were divided into six categories. They were: state colleges, private colleges, University of California campuses, private universities, other California institutions, and out of state colleges or universities. The school psychologists educated in institutions out of the State of California constituted the largest group. As many as 30 per cent of the total group were from other states. The next most numerous of the educational institutions are shown in Table 6. The California state college system trained 20 per cent of the participants in the study. The two major private universities in Cali fornia provided for the educational needs of 18 per cent TABLE 6 97 DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS ACCORDING TO INSTITUTION IN WHICH THE MAJOR PORTION OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING WAS TAKEN Number of Per cent Institution Psychologists of Total Colleges, State San Francisco 32 Chico 5 San Jose 10 Fresno 6 Los Angeles 10 Sacramento 5 San Diego _2 70 20 Colleges, Private Claremont 9 Occidental 6 College of the Pacific 8 Whittier 2 Pomona __3 28 8 University of California Berkeley Campus 28 Los Angeles Campus 18 Santa Barbara Campus _5 51 14 University, Private Southern California 42 Stanford 22 64 18 Other California Institutions 4 1 Out of State Institutions 106 30 No Answer 31 __9 Total 354 100 of the respondents. The three campuses of the University of California educated 14 per cent of the school psycholo gists. The private colleges of the state had psychological alumna of 8 per cent. Evaluation of these data seems to indicate that school psychologists have received their pro fessional training at many different educational institu tions. The School Superintendents In this section of the chapter the personal data obtained from the superintendents by means of the opinion- aire are discussed. The subsections are organized along the same lines as the section just concluded. First, the titles of the superintendents' group of role definers are explained. The counties where the superintendents were employed are enumerated. The type of school district organization that this group of role definers reported is given. The size of the superintendent's school district by pupil enrollment is presented. The number of psychologists employed by the several districts are reported in the study. Finally, an explanation is given of the informa tion that was reported by the superintendents in regard 99 to the institutions where they took the major amount of their professional training. Titles of superintendents In California the individual in charge of a school or a county schools office is always called a superintend ent. This fact helped to simplify the selection of this group of role definers. There were no critical assumptions that had to be made about the differences in title of superintendents since no differences in title exist. Only 38 of the 178 superintendents* responses were those of a subordinate administrator. One hundred forty superintendents, or 79 per cent of the total participants, completed the opinionaires themselves. The 21 per cent of other administrator responses were primarily from assistant superintendents of instruction. Counties where superintendents were employed Opinionaires were received from superintendents who iwere employed in forty-one of the fifty-eight California counties. As was the case with the psychologists the majority of superintendents were located in Los Angeles i County. Forty-seven superintendents, who represent 100 26 per cent of the total group, were from this most popu lous of California counties. Orange County had eighteen superintendents, or 10 per cent of the total, who returned opinionaires. The remainder of the superintendents* re sponses came from throughout the state. The number of superintendent participants from each county are given in Table 7. Tvnes of school organizations where superintendents were employed Superintendents participating in the investigation were employed by the four major types of school organiza tion prevalent in California. The largest number of par ticipants directed elementary school districts. Table 8 reveals that seventy-three superintendents were employed in this type of school organization. This figure represents 41 per cent of the total group of superintendent role de finers. The next largest number of superintendents were responsible to unified school districts. These superin tendents made up 25 per cent of the participants. Four teen per cent of the returns were from county schools ! superintendents. The secondary schools were represented |by 13 per cent of the superintendents* group. 101 TABLE 7 DISTRIBUTION OF SUPERINTENDENTS ACCORDING TO COUNTIES IN WHICH THEY WERE EMPLOYED Number of Name of County Superintendents Per cent Alameda 11 6.1 Amador 1 .6 Butte 1 .6 Contra Costa 5 2.8 El Dorado 1 .6 Fresno 1 .6 Humboldt 3 1.6 Imperial 1 .6 Kern 4 2.2 Kings 2 1.2 Los Angeles 47 26.3 Madera 2 1.2 Marin 3 1.6 Mendocino 1 .6 Merced 2 1.2 Monterey 3 1.6 Napa 1 .6 Nevada 1 .6 Orange 18 10.1 Plumas 1 .6 Riverside 5 2.8 Sacramento 7 3.9 San Bernardino 8 4.4 San Diego 8 4.4 jSan Francisco 1 .6 ;San Joaquin 2 1.2 San Luis Obispo 2 1.2 !San Mateo 5 2.8 Santa Barbara 3 1.6 Santa Clara 8 4.4 Santa Cruz 1 .6 102 TABLE 7— Continued Number of Name of County Superintendents Per cent Shasta 1 .6 Siskiyou 1 .6 Solano 2 1.2 Sonoma 1 . 6 Stanislaus 2 1.2 Tulare 3 1.6 Ventura 3 1.6 Yolo 2 1.2 Yuba 1 .6 No Answer 3 1.6 Total 178 100.0 v0vOCv)v0CMvO*0CMvOvO| 103 TABLE 8 DISTRIBUTION OF SUPERINTENDENTS ACCORDING TO ORGANIZATION IN WHICH THEY WERE EMPLOYED Number of Organization Superintendents Per cent County Schools Office 25 14 Unified School District 44 25 Secondary School District 24 13 Elementary School District 73 41 No Answer 12 7 Total 178 100 Size of districts by pupil enrollment The superintendents were much more aware of the number of pupils enrolled in their districts than the school psychologists. Only 18 per cent of the superintend ents failed to respond to this section of the opinionaire. Table 9 shows that 43 superintendents, or 24 per cent of the total, had 2,500 to 4,999 children enrolled in their districts. Superintendents of school districts of 5,000 to 7,499 pupils made up 17 per cent of the respondents. School districts of 7,500 to 14,999 enrollment were repre sented by 21 per cent of the superintendents. The remain ing superintendent participants in the research were the administrative heads of districts ranging in pupil size of 15,000 to 100,000. Number of psychologists employed bv districts Almost half of the superintendents indicated that their district had only one psychologist on the staff. As shown in Table 10, 14 per cent of the superintendents had two psychologists employed in their districts. Eighteen per cent of the superintendents had staffs of psycholo gists ranging in number from three to thirteen. This item 105 TABLE 9 DISTRIBUTION OF SUPERINTENDENTS ACCORDING TO PUPIL ENROLLMENT OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN WHICH THEY WERE EMPLOYED Number of Number of Pupils Superintendents Enrolled in from Districts the District of this Size Per cent 0 to 2,499 14 8 2,500 to 4,999 43 24 5,000 to 7,499 31 17 7,500 to 9,999 17 10 10,000 to 14,999 19 11 15,000 to 19,999 6 3 20,000 to 34,999 7 4 35,000 to 49,999 3 2 50,000 to 74,999 4 2 75,000 or more 2 1 No Answer 32 18 Total 178 100 106 TABUS 10 DISTRIBUTION OF THE NUMBER OF PSYCHOLOGISTS EMPLOYED BY SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACCORDING TO THE SUPERINTENDENTS* REPORT Number of Psychologists Number of In Each District Districts Per cent 1 85 48.0 11/2 4 2.0 2 25 14.0 2 1/2 2 1.0 3 13 7.0 4 8 4.0 5 2 1.0 7 2 1.0 10 1 .5 13 1 .5 No Answer 35 21.0 Total 178 100.0 107 on the oplnionaire was not filled in by 20 per cent of the superintendents. Institutions where superintendents took their training Superintendents were also asked to indicate where they took the major amount of their training. The two major private universities in California were represented by 33 per cent of the total respondents. Twenty-three per cent of the superintendents studied at the University of Southern California. Table 11 reveals that 21 per cent of the superintendents did not provide this information. Other California institutions trained 17 per cent of these respondents. The remaining 29 per cent of the superintend ents had studied at the other private and public colleges and universities of the state. The College and University Faculty Members Selected college and university faculty members were also asked to fill in the personal data section of the oplnionaire. However, the only item that was applicable was that one that dealt with the institution where the faculty members took their professional training. 108 TABLE 11 DISTRIBUTION OF SUPERINTENDENTS ACCORDING TO INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH THE MAJOR PORTION OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING WAS TAKEN Number of Institution Superintendents Per cent Colleges, State San Francisco 1 Chico 1 San Jose 7 Fresno 3 Sacramento 1 13 7 Colleges, Private Claremont 6 College of the Pacific 4 Whittier 4 14 8 University of California Berkeley Campus 14 Los Angeles Campus 5 Santa Barbara Campus 1 20 11 University, Private Southern California 41 Stanford 17 58 33 Other Schools in California 5 3 Out of State Institutions 30 17 No Answer ! 38 21 Total 178 100 109 The tabulations from this Item of the oplnionaire for faculty members are given In Table 12. Nearly half of the higher education respondents re ceived their training in other states than California. Eighteen per cent of the faculty member role definers were educated at the University of Southern California or Stan ford University. The University of California at Los Angeles and at Berkeley were represented by the next largest group of faculty members. Fifteen per cent of the total were from these two institutions of higher learning. The responses of the remaining faculty member role definers were distributed among the colleges and other institutions of the state. Summary In this chapter personal data about the members of the three role definer groups have been presented. The assumption was made for purposes of the study that school superintendents*, school psychologists*, and college and university faculty members' perceptions of the role of the school psychologist are affected by these personal factors. Consideration of these data seems to support the 110 TABLE 12 DISTRIBUTION OF FACULTY MEMBERS ACCORDING TO INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH THE MAJOR PORTION OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING WAS TAKEN Institution Number of Faculty Members Per cent Colleges, State Sacramento Colleges, Private College of the Pacific University of California Berkeley Campus Los Angeles Campus University, Private Southern California Stanford Other Schools In California Out of State Institutions No Answer Total 2 2 4 3 2 5 1 13 _2 27 4 4 15 18 4 48 7 100 conclusion that the role definers were representative of their particular population. Educational institutions of all types within and without the state were represented. Respondents were located in all sections of the state. School organizations of all sizes and types provided par ticipants to the study. Psychologists who work alone and those working on staffs of psychologists replied to the oplnionaire. The findings and conclusions based upon the opinions of the school superintendents, school psycholo gists, and faculty members who responded in this study should be typical of the responses of all of the persons in California employed in these three professional positions. CHAPTER V ROLE ITEMS WITH A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE The purpose of the study was to analyze the role of the school psychologist In California. The persons selected for the investigation as of most importance in determining the role of the school psychologist were school superintendents, school psychologists, and college or uni versity faculty members. Individuals employed in these three types of jobs were considered in the study as role definers. The opinions of the role definers were obtained by means of a mailed oplnionaire. The oplnionaire included three role expectation instruments. These instruments were titled according to the content of the items within them. They were: (1) "Expectations for the School Psychologist's Participations" instrument, (2) "Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances" instrument, and (3) Expecta tions for the School Psychologist's Attributes" instrument. By using the three instruments role definers were able 112 113 to give their opinions about their role expectations for school psychologists. The returned opinionaires were statistically analyzed. This chapter is concerned with one aspect of the statistical analysis. This part of the analysis deals with the items from the three role expectation instruments for which there was a statistically significant difference between any two of several groups of role definers. This chapter is organized to present the method used and the data obtained for the analysis of the con sensus between the groups of role definers. The methods and procedures of the analysis are discussed in the next section of the chapter. Subsequent sections are devoted to the comparisons that were made for the separate groups of role definers. The statistically significant items from the comparison of the superintendents' and psychologists' opinions are described first. The differences between the opinions of the faculty members and superintendents and between those of the faculty members and psychologists are examined in the two sections that follow. 114 The Analysis A major focus of Che study was the agreement or disagreement among the role definers and between groups of role definers. Agreement or consensus was considered from two points of view. The two types of consensus obtained for the role definers are called interposition consensus and intraposition consensus. Interposition consensus is the agreement or disa greement between groups of role definers. Interposition consensus is determined about some component of a par ticular role position. In this study, for example, the agreement or disagreement between the superintendents and psychologists for a statement in regard to school psycholo gists' performances, participations, or attributes involves interposition consensus. Intraposition consensus is the degree of agreement or disagreement among a single group of role definers. An example of intraposition consensus is the consensus ob tained for all of the superintendents about school psy chologists ' performances. Interposition consensus was measured for all three role expectation instruments by individual items. For many 115 statements from the Instruments there were statistically significant differences between the groups of role definers who participated in the study. In role analysis interposition consensus must be considered in relation to the intraposition consensus in order to tinderstand the meaning of the differences between the groups of role definers. The differences between role definer groups are the result of the opinions of all of the members of each single group. For example, there was a statistically significant difference between the superin tendents and psychologists for the statement about psy chologists making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the socially maladjusted. This interposition difference was the result of the intraposition consensus of the item for the two groups. Both groups held the opinion that psychologists should make this kind of study; how ever, more psychologists than superintendents were of the opinion that the psychologist absolutely must do this— thus the interposition differences between the two groups. Interposition and intraposition analysis pose quite different statistical problems. These statistical pro cedures involved in the two types of evaluation are dis cussed separately. 116 The method of interposition analysis It was necessary to find a statistical technique for the measurement of consensus between role definer groups for each of the statements of the role expectation instruments. The problem was to determine how to measure comparisons of the responses of all psychologists to those of all superintendents indicating agreement or disagreement on each of the items contained in the three role definition instruments. A comparison was further needed of the re sponses of psychologists and faculty members as well. The third interposition analysis was the comparison of super intendents* and faculty members' opinions. The bulk and complexity of measuring three such comparisons in two dimensions seemed warranted for precision. A statistical technique for testing the signifi cance of the difference between two distributions is the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test. This test is concerned with the agreement between two sets of sample values. The following quotation from Siegel explains the use of the technique: Zf the two samples have in fact been drawn from the same population distributions, then the cumulative distributions of both samples may be expected to be fairly close to each other, inasmuch as they both 117 should show only random deviations from the population distribution. If the two sample cumulative dlstrlbu- tlons are "too far apart" at any point, this suggests that the samples come from different populations. Thus a large enough deviation between the two sample cumula tive distributions Is evidence for rejecting the null hypothesis. (11:127-128) The null hypothesis Is an hypothesis of no differ ence. It is usually formulated for the purpose of testing for possible rejection. If the null hypothesis is rejected the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The alternative hypothesis is a statement of the research hypothesis (11:7). In this study the research hypothesis was that there are differences between the opinions held by the separate role definer groups for each of the Items of the role expectation instruments. The level of significance for rejecting the null hypothesis was the probability value of .05 or less. Thus if the significance value for any item of the role expectation instruments was .05 or less, the null hypothesis of no difference was rejected. The research hypothesis of differences of opinion between role definer groups was accepted. The sample distributions were obtained by a tally of the responses of the participants to the three role 118 expectation Instruments. It was possible for the role de finers to check one of five response categories. The five sections for the participants' opinions were: (1) abso lutely must, (2) preferably should, (3) may or may not, (4) preferably should not, and (5) absolutely must not. Sample distributions were developed by International Busi ness Machine equipment for each statement from the par ticipations instrument, the performances instrument, and the attributes instrument. Distributions were made for each of the three groups of role definers. In order to use the distributions in the statisti cal analysis numerical values were assigned to the response categories. As was the case in the School Executive Studies numerical values of one to five were arbitrarily assigned to the response categories (5:106). The weight of one was given to the "absolutely must" section. The "abso lutely must not" category received a weight of five. The numerical values of two, three, and four were assigned to the "preferably should," "may or may not," and "preferably should not" sections of the opinionaire respectively. Interposition consensus is discussed and elaborated for each of the role expectation instruments in subsequent 119 sections o£ this chapter. Specific details o£ the analysis are presented. The method of intraposition analysis The intraposition measurement problem can be re** duced to the following question: Given a series of dis tributions, each of which is comprised of the set of responses of a group of role definers to a single expecta tion item with five response categories ranging from "absolutely must" to "absolutely must not," how can scores be obtained that will rank the items on a continuum of consensus? It is clear that if all the responses for an item fell in one category there is perfect consensus among the members of that group of role definers. This recognition does not provide a measure of consensus, however, since in this study there are only two items from the role partici pation instruments for which the responses are this ex treme. An item may show some consensus within each of two groups of role definers. A criterion is needed to show in which group there is more consensus about the item. This suggests that in the measurement of consensus at least two elements must be considered: central tendencies and the 120 variability of the distribution. In this study, as in the School Executive Studies, the variance of the distribution was used as the measure of intra-group or intraposition consensus. This statistical measure provides a score involving deviations about the mean. The variance scores were obtained for frequency dis tributions of each item of the three expectation instru ments and for each group of role definers. After the variance scores were calculated they were ranked from high to low according to numerical value. In this way it was possible to locate the scores that repre sented the top 27 per cent of each distribution. The bottom or lowest 27 per cent were also determined. The lists of role expectation items ranked by numerical value of the variance scores were used in interpreting the data. If the variance score of a particular group of role definers* responses to a role expectation item fell in the top or highest 27 per cent of the distribution of scores the item was said to have high consensus for that group of role definers. If the variance score for a role partici pations instrument item of a role definer group fell in the bottom or lowest 27 per cent of the distribution the item 121 was said to have low intraposition consensus among that group of role definers. Items for which the variance score did not fall in either of these extreme groups were con sidered as having middle intraposition consensus for the particular role definer group. In the following sections of this chapter the items from the role participation instruments for which there were significant differences between role definers* groups are discussed. Interposition consensus according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria is examined. Interpretation of the differences are made by explaining the intraposition consensus of the two groups of role definers. In the next part of this chapter the comparison of superintendent and psychologist responses is given. A sub section is devoted to the items that were significantly different from the participations instrument, from the per formances instrument, and from the attributes instrument, respectively. The second section is devoted to presenting the items that had significant differences according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria for the faculty members* and superintendents' groups of role definers. Again the section is divided according to the three role expectation 122 Instruments. Finally, the statements for which there were Interposition differences among faculty members and psy** cholegists are enumerated. A Comparison of Superintendents* and Psychologists* Opinions In this section of the chapter each Item of the three role expectation instruments for which there was a statistically significant difference between superintend ents and psychologists is considered Individually. All items presented here were significant according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria. In order to interpret these Interposition differ ences intraposition consensus for each item is also given. Responses that fell in the "absolutely must" and "pre ferably should" categories are evaluated as affirmative opinions. Negative opinions are those that were found in the "preferably should not" and "absolutely must not" sec tions of the instruments. Opinions found in the "abso- i lutely must" and "absolutely must not" sections were thought to be opinions of greatest intensity in opposite direction. Opinions located in the "may or may not" i j sections were said to be permissive. 123 There are three subsections in this section of the chapter. The first is concerned with the statistically significant items that pertain to expectations for the psychologist's participations. The second subsection deals with items pertaining to expectations for the school psy chologist's performances. The final section deals with items pertaining to expectations for the psychologist's attributes. Expectations for the school psychologist's participations Thirty-six per cent of the items from the role par ticipation instrument had statistically significant dif ferences. As can be observed in Table 13 the differences in interposition consensus occurred for statements about psychologists belonging to or participating in different types of organizations. The interposition differences between the superin tendents and psychologists were not the result of differ ences in direction of opinion. The differences stemmed from intraposition consensus differences. One of the groups had more intense opinions about the item being con sidered than did the other group. TABLE 13 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PARTICIPATIONS: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Per cent of Total Response Item Group H ■a U H O .02 ® tH ® 4J •y o H*0 uo H*0 92 ®iH 02 ®rH tH <H 0 ® o >%>s 0 <u O O 4J OB m 2 2 — o Vi os § M 3 IM o > 2 O-H « ti «H G ® tH- 0 0 O 0 «•.. 2 U > H C / J Is a member of the American Superintendent 7 48 43 0 0 2 Low .005 Psychological Association Psychologist 13 58 24 1 0 4 Low Is a member of Division 16, Superintendent 2 43 49 0 0 6 Median .0005 the Division of School Psy chologists of the American Psychological Association Psychologist 5 60 32 1 0 2 Median Is a member of the National Superintendent 6 52 40 0 0 2 Low .025 Education Association Psychologist 6 38 52 1 0 3 Low Participates in Parent Superintendent 9 71 18 1 0 1 Median .0005 Teachers Association meet ings service clubs, women's organizations, workshop sessions and conventions of Psychologist 9 52 35 0 0 3 Low regional or state organ izations i - * to ■ p * 125 There was low intraposition agreement among both the psychologist group and the superintendent group for the item, "Is a member of the American Psychological Associ ation." In spite of the low intraposition consensus among the two groups of role definers nearly half of the superin tendents indicated that school psychologists may or may not be members of this organization. Interposition differences existed because almost three-fourths of the psychologists were of an affirmative opinion about the American Psycho logical Association. The intraposition consensus for the item, "Is a member of Division 16, the Division of School Psycholo gists, of the American Psychological Association," was middle for the superintendents and middle for the psy chologists. The interposition difference resulted from the superintendents' opinions of "may or may not" compared to 65 per cent of the psychologists' affirmative opinions. In the case of membership in the National Education Association the interposition disagreement was caused by superintendents holding the affirmative opinion that psy chologists should belong to this organization. In contrast the psychologists did not hold as intense opinions about 126 the National Education Association as they did about mem bership in the American Psychological Association. However £or both groups the intraposition consensus was low. Four-fifths of the superintendents were of an affirmative opinion that school psychologists participate in "Parent Teacher Association meetings, service clubs, women's organizations, workshop sessions, and conventions of regional or state organizations." One-third of the psychologists checked the "may or may not" category. The superintendents' intraposition consensus was middle as compared to low for the psychologists. Evaluation of these data seem to indicate that psychologists hold affirmative opinions about their men&er- ship in psychological organizations while superintendents are not as concerned with this type of membership. Con versely, superintendents* opinions tend to denote that they feel psychologists should participate in educational organ izations while psychologists do not feel strongly about ibeing involved in these organizations. I Expectations for the school psychologist's performances One-third of the items from the performances | instrument had interposition consensus differences between 127 superintendents and psychologists. The level of signifi cance and percentage distribution of response for each significant item are presented in Table 14. Generally the interposition differences among the role definers were the result of more intense opinions among one of the groups for which the comparison was made. In the case of the items about the school psychologist con ducting therapy there was also intraposition differences in direction of opinion. Statements about many different types of on-the-job performances of school psychologists were represented in the list of items which were signifi cantly different according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria. These data show that almost half of the superin tendents held the opinion that psychologists may or may not make "diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped." Fifty-nine per cent of the psychologists held affirmative opinions about this be havior. The intraposition consensus for both groups was low. The intensity of opinion was important in the ; intraposition consensus for the item, "Making diagnostic ( TABLE 14 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERFORMANCES: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARES TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Per cent of Total Response < } } Item Group Absolutely Must Preferably Should May or May NOt Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not N o Answer Consensus Level of Significant Diagnostic studies of Superintendent 20 25 42 11 1 1 Low .025 physically handicapped Psychologist 24 35 32 5 3 1 Low Diagnostic studies of Superintendent 43 44 12 0 0 1 High .025 socially maladjusted Psychologist 55 39 5 0 0 1 High Obtaining Information from the child Superintendent 58 30 10 1 0 1 Median .001 Psychologist 75 18 5 0 0 2 High Obtaining information from Superintendent 54 38 8 0 0 0 High .025 the school nurse Psychologist 41 46 12 0 0 1 High Administering, scoring, and Superintendent 49 28 19 4 0 0 Low .0005 interpreting, for individual child study, intelligence Psychologist 70 21 8 1 0 0 High tests TABLE 14— Continued Per cent of Total Response © Item Group Absolutely Must Preferably Should May or May Not Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not No Answer Consensus Level of Significant Administering, scoring, and Superintendent 11 35 42 7 0 5 Median .001 interpreting, for individual child study, interest in ventories Psychologist 10 20 60 8 0 2 Median Summarizing and interpret Superintendent 66 25 2 0 0 7 High .01 ing findings of an indi vidual child study Psychologist 80 13 3 0 0 4 High Consulting with the school Superintendent 45 35 15 3 0 2 Median .001 staff for the purpose of developing testing program Psychologist 28 44 24 3 0 1 Median Recommending specific Superintendent 33 40 24 2 0 1 Median .025 tests Psychologist 19 41 35 3 0 2 Median Preparing calendars and Superintendent 15 21 51 11 2 0 Low .005 schedules for the testing program Psychologist 6 15 49 24 4 2 Low Supervising test adminis Superintendent 13 28 44 12 2 1 Low .005 tration Psychologist 6 19 48 23 4 0 Low » - * vO TABLE 14— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item Group >s H H ® J3 4J CO 3 WO r - i 0r-f OU 4 - 1 3 <a n CO ficn >>£ * HO H ,0 83 «4J w e w wo wo 0 OSS e«H >H *w a oil « 0 eg 22 *6 £2 £ 2 e 3 § e g u « g «W O 0 *H *w H •H « ft > So ■H ►3CO Administering group tests Superintendent Psychologist 3 1 11 4 39 35 37 46 9 14 1 0 Low Median .01 Special analysis of the Superintendent 38 39 18 3 0 2 Median .05 test results in relation to the local program Psychologist 27 43 27 2 0 1 Median Conferencing about case Superintendent 51 42 7 0 0 0 High .005 study follow-up with teachers Psychologist 67 31 1 0 0 1 High Conferencing about case Superintendent 23 51 24 1 0 1 Median .01 study follow-up with attendance personnel Psychologist 20 38 40 1 0 1 Median Carrying on therapy for Superintendent 7 20 37 18 15 3 Low .025 groups of children Psychologist 9 21 48 14 8 0 Low Carrying on therapy for Superintendent 5 13 36 23 21 2 Low .005 groups of parents Psychologist 5 17 47 20 10 1 Low Interviewing, discussing, Superintendent 30 43 23 3 0 1 Median .0005 counseling with pupils Psychologist 52 37 10 1 0 0 Median 130 TABLE 14— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item Group e Is pH O-P CO tt 41 >> rl 5 <M 3 V O > > U HO hj a MO MT3 0 % O H 8 2 IS O o 0 ii 3 s5 o 4J t o q M s CO 5 £ < t - i o CO O *H 8 m pH *H CO 9 § I O MCO Interviewing, discussing, Superintendent 28 47 23 2 0 0 Median .0005 counseling with parents Psychologist 47 43 9 1 0 0 Median Maintaining regular com munications with community agencies Superintendent 32 51 17 0 0 0 High .005 Being available to members Superintendent 32 29 18 10 7 4 Low .005 of school board, when desired, to discuss psy chological implications of school policies Psychologist 40 37 16 4 1 2 Low Conferring with teachers Superintendent 50 42 7 1 0 0 High .0005 who request help in coping with pupil problems Psychologist 74 24 2 0 0 0 High Participating in in-service Superintendent 14 38 42 5 1 0 Median .01 training programs for administrators Psychologist 16 50 29 4 0 1 Median 131 TABLE 14— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response Item Group tH tH © .o jj to 3 MTJ rH ©tH O -U <H 3 © © OP ►>« ►. *H O tH ,OK 04J . 4J 0 4JO UO M-u 3S5 OZ ©tH rH «M 3 O-M ©O 9 9 41 £6 S i ££ | H 8 © 4 © 3 § « 8 U O «H O O *H a CO Participating in in-service Superintendent 15 44 38 3 6 6 Median .605 training programs for teachers Psychologist 21 53 24 1 0 1 Median Participating in in-service Superintendent 11 30 52 5 1 1 Median .05 training program for other school personnel Psychologist 13 41 39 5 0 2 Median Helping to organize com Superintendent 8 42 42 6 1 1 Median .01 munity organizations con cerned with mental health Psychologist 14 51 31 2 0 2 Median Participating in community Superintendent 5 45 47 2 0 1 High .05 health organizations Psychologist 12 50 36 1 0 1 Median Identifying sound and sig Superintendent 19 51 26 1 0 3 Median .05 nificant research Psychologist 27 54 16 1 0 2 Median Offering leadership in the Superintendent 19 56 21 3 0 1 Median .025 nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services Psychologist 31 51 15 1 0 2 Median 133 studies of individual children to identify the socially maladjusted." Almost 90 per cent of both groups held affirmative opinions about this role. However, over half of the psychologists put this item in the "absolutely must" category as compared to less than half of the superintend ents. The consensus among psychologists for identifying the socially maladjusted was high and for the superintend ents' Intraposition consensus was also high. "Obtaining information from the child" was another item for which both groups had an affirmative opinion. Three-fourths of the psychologists indicated most intense opinion about this role. A little over half of the superintendents were of as strong an opinion. Among the psychologists the opinion was not only intense but the agreement among all of them was high. The intraposition consensus among the superintendents was middle. More superintendents than psychologists were of the opinion that information from the school nurse was abso lutely a must. Nearly all of both groups' opinions for this item were affirmative. The intraposition agreement for both groups was high. i . Intensity of opinion was the source of interposi- I tion disagreement for the item, "Administering, scoring, 134 and interpreting for individual child study intelligence tests." Nineteen per cent more of the psychologists said they absolutely must do this work than did the superintend ents indicate they believed the psychologist should. Another very important fact in interpretation of the disa greement is the high intraposition consensus of the psy chologists and the low intraposition agreement of the superintendents. The use of interest inventories in individual child study was checked "may or may not" by 60 per cent of the psychologists. Nearly half of the superintendents held affirmative opinions about the use of this technique. The intraposition consensus was middle for both groups. Eighty per cent of the psychologists were of the opinion that they absolutely must interpret and summarize the findings of a study on an individual child. Only 66 per cent of the superintendents had these intense opinions although more than 90 per cent were affirmative. The intraposition agreement for both the superintendents and psychologists was high. Consulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing group testing programs was an "absolutely must" 135 opinion for 45 per cent of the superintendents. Only 28 per cent of the psychologists checked this degree of in tensity about this item. Middle intraposition consensus held for both groups. Nearly three-fourths of the superintendents had affirmative opinions about the psychologist recommending specific group tests. Just over half of the psychologists checked that they should do this work. Again both groups had middle intraposition agreement. Half of both the superintendent and psychologist groups seemed to say that psychologists may or may not prepare "calendars and schedules for the testing program." Affirmative opinions were obtained for one-third of the superintendents. One-fourth of the psychologists checked that they preferably should not do this job. Although the intraposition consensus was low for both groups these data represent a difference in direction of feeling as well as intensity. There was a partial difference in the direction of opinion between the two groups for the item supervising group test administration. Almost one-fourth of the psy- ■ x chologists said they preferably should not have this r 136 function. Nearly half of both groups of role definers were of the opinion that psychologists may or may not do this type of supervision. The intraposition consensus for both categories of role definers was low. Both sets of role definers had negative opinions about psychologists administering group tests. The in tensity of feeling of the psychologists was more strongly negative. For the superintendents intraposition agreement was low for this item. The psychologists had middle agree ment about giving group tests. Special analysis of the group test results in rela tion to the local program was a task that superintendents seem to hold stronger affirmative opinions for than do psychologists. Middle intraposition consensus was obtained for both groups of role definers. Psychologists had opinions of greatest intensity about "Conferencing about case study follow-up with teach ers." Affirmative opinions of less intensity were gathered from superintendents. Both groups had high intraposition agreement for this item. Of the superintendents three-fourths held the opinion that psychologists should conference with attendance personnel about the follow-up of case studies. Almost half of the psychologists were of the opinion that they may or may not do this conferencing. Neither group went beyond the middle level of intraposition consensus. There was very low intraposition agreement on the statement, "Carrying on therapy for groups of children." Almost one-third of the superintendents had negative opinions about therapy for groups of children. The inter position disagreement resulted from the almost one-fourth of the psychologists who also had negative opinions. The number of superintendents with negative opinions was greater. The direction of the opinion of superintendents for the statement, "Carrying on therapy for groups of parents,” was negative for almost half of the superintendents. Al most the same percentage of psychologists checked the "may or may not" category for this item. For both sets of role definers the intraposition agreement was low. Over half of the psychologists checked that they absolutely must interview, discuss, and counsel with indi vidual pupils. While three-fourths of the superintendents held affirmative opinions about this function, less than 138 one-third held as Intense opinions as did the psycholo gists. Intraposition agreement for both groups was in the middle range. Three-fourths of the superintendents appear to have affirmative opinions about interviewing, discussing, and counseling with parents. Approximately one-half of the psychologists had more intense affirmative feelings about this work with parents. Middle intraposition consensus prevailed for both groups. Almost half of the psychologists checked that they absolutely must maintain regular communications with com munity agencies. The opinions of four-fifths of the super intendents were affirmative but less intense. The psy chologists' intraposition consensus was high as well as being intense in direction. The superintendents1 group was also in the high range for intraposition agreement. Seventy-seven per cent of the psychologists had affirmative opinions that they should be "available to mem bers of school board, when desired, to discuss psychologi cal implications of school policies." Only 61 per cent of the superintendents had affirmative opinions about this role. Low intraposition consensus is seen for both groups. 139 Nearly all of the superintendents and psychologists checked the opinion that psychologists should confer with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems. Seventy-four per cent of the psychologists put this state ment in the "absolutely must" category. These data have more meaning when considered in the light of the high intraposition consensus of both groups of role definers. Slightly over half of the superintendents checked affirmative categories for the item, "Participating in in- service training programs for administrators." Sixty-six per cent of the psychologists placed responses in the same two categories. Intraposition consensus was middle for the superintendents and middle for the psychologists. On the statement, "Participating in in-service training programs for teachers," 74 per cent of the psy chologists put it in the affirmative categories. Only 59 per cent of the superintendents appear to have affirmative opinions. Intraposition agreement was in the middle range for both groups of role definers. Slightly over half of the superintendents checked "may or may not" for the item, "Participating in in-service training programs for other school personnel." Over half 140 of the psychologists placed this Item In the two affirma tive sections. Middle intraposition consensus prevailed for both of these groups. Affirmative opinions of 50 per cent of the superin tendents are seen for the statement, "Helping to organize community organizations concerned with mental health." Sixty-five per cent of the psychologists checked affirma tive opinions for this statement. Intraposition agreement for both groups was in the middle range. For the item, "Participating in community health organizations," superintendents' responses were categorized as 50 per cent affirmative and as nearly 50 per cent "may or may not." The psychologists' opinions were 60 per cent affirmative. Superintendent intraposition agreement was high. Psychologist agreement was middle. Four-fifths of the psychologists were affirmative in their opinions about "identifying sound and significant research." Less than three-fourths of the superintendents were so inclined. Both groups of role definers had median intraposition agreement. The interposition disagreement for the statement, "Offering leadership in the nature and process of 141 evaluation as it pertains to special services/' was the result of the intensity of opinion. Thirty-one per cent of the psychologists checked "absolutely must" for this item. Only 19 per cent of the superintendents had such strong opinions. Middle intraposition agreement was set forth for both groups. These data provide several findings about the per formances of school psychologists. In some areas of the psychologist's work there were significant differences of opinion between superintendents and psychologists. For example, superintendents did not seem to be concerned about psychologists doing studies with physically handicapped children but psychologists thought they should do this type of study. Psychologists felt much more strongly than superintendents that they must conduct studies with mal adjusted children. The statements about the psychologist obtaining information from the child and the school nurse were found to be significantly different because of the intensity of opinion among the two groups. The psychologists seem to feel they absolutely must gather information from the child and that they should work with the school nurse. 142 The superintendents, to the contrary, appear to be o£ the opinion that school psychologists should obtain information from the child but absolutely must work with the school nurse. Psychologists have opinions of great intensity that they should use intelligence tests in an individual study. Superintendents seem to think they should use this type of test but are not of as strong opinions about it. On the other hand superintendents were of stronger opinions than psychologists that school psychologists should use inter est inventories when conducting an individual study of a child. Both of these groups of role definers seemed to feel that psychologists should summarize and interpret the findings of an individual study. The interposition differ ences were the result of greater intensity of opinion among the psychologists. There were statistically significant differences between superintendents and psychologists for six state ments about the psychologists part in the group testing program of the school. The superintendents had more intense affirmative opinions about the following items: 143 consulting with the school staff for the purpose of de veloping group testing program; recommending specific tests; and special analysis of the test results in relation to the local program. There were more negative opinions among the psychologists than superintendents about several of the school psychologist's performances in the group testing program. These items were: preparing calendars and schedules for the group testing program; supervising test administration; and administering group tests. Conferencing about case study follow-up with teachers and with attendance personnel were two items for which there were statistically significant differences be tween superintendents and psychologists. Superintendents had opinions of greater intensity about conferences with attendance personnel while psychologists' opinions were more affirmatively intense about psychologists conferencing with teachers. There were opinions among both groups of role de finers about the school psychologist carrying on therapy for groups of children and groups of parents ranging from "absolutely must" to "absolutely must not." In the case of both statements the interposition differences were 144 the result of more superintendents holding negative opinions. Most of the superintendents and psychologists held affirmative opinions about school psychologists interview ing, discussing, and counseling with pupils and with par ents. The psychologists had more intense positive opinions about these two performances than did the superintendents. Thus interposition differences occurred. Almost all of both groups of role definers held opinions that the school psychologist should maintain com munications with coninunity agencies. The psychologists caused interposition differences because they held more intense positive opinions about this task. Opinions of superintendents varied considerably in regard to the school psychologist being available to mem bers of school board, when desired, to discuss psychologi cal implications of school policies. The opinions of psychologists also varied widely. However, the psycholo gists had more affirmative opinions about working with school boards. Almost all superintendents and psychologists seemed to feel that the school psychologist should confer with 145 teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems. Interposition differences arose as a result of the number of school psychologists who had opinions that they abso lutely must do this conferencing. The superintendent and psychologist groups of role definers each had affirmative opinions about psychologists participating in in-service training programs for adminis trators, for teachers, and for other school personnel. More superintendents than psychologists felt that psycholo gists may or may not take part in in-service training so interposition disagreement existed. Not as many superintendents as psychologists seemed to think that school psychologists should help to organize and participate in community health and mental health organizations. More of the superintendents had opinions in the "may or may not" category than did psychologists. Identifying sound and significant research was a task that both the psychologists and superintendents seemed to feel that school psychologists should do. However, more of the psychologist group had "absolutely must" opinions about this duty. Intensity of affirmative opinion was. also the 146 source of interposition differences between superintendents and psychologists for the statement about school psycholo gists offering leadership in the nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services. More of the psychologists had opinions of the most intensity than superintendents for this statement. Observation of these data and the summary shows that the significant differences were not the result of differences in direction of opinion among the two groups of role definers. The interposition differences were caused by the fact that more members of one of the groups held opinions of greater intensity than did the members of the other group of participants. Generally most of the members of the superintendents' group and most of the members of the psychologists' group had opinions of an affirmative nature about the performances of school psychologists as described in the role expectation instrument. Expectations for the school psychologist's attributes For 31 per cent of the items on the school psy chologist's attributes instrument there were interposition differences according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria 147 between the superintendents' and psychologists' group of role definers. These data are presented In Table 15. In this subsection of the chapter data from this part of the study are presented and summarized. Nearly all of the superintendents and psychologists were of the opinion that a psychologist should be per sonally neat. Forty per cent of the superintendents checked the category "absolutely must." Only 27 per cent of the psychologists had such intense opinions. The intra position agreement was low for superintendents and middle for psychologists. Eighty-five per cent of the superintendents had opinions that psychologists should be attractive. Of the psychologists 65 per cent had the same affirmative opinions. Low intraposition consensus was held by both groups. Almost all of the respondents in both groups held that psychologists should give "credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers." Eighty-two per cent of the psychologists had opinions of greatest intensity about this statement. Fifty-eight per cent of the superintendents listed this item in, the TABLE 15 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S ATTRIBUTES: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Item Group Absolutely 9 1 1 Must 5 n Preferably fi Should rr o May or ** May Not H Preferably S> Should Not M £ Absolutely « Must Not H No Answer a Consensus Level of H Significance | Is personally neat Superintendent 40 57 2 0 0 1 Low .025 Psychologist 27 67 4 0 0 2 Median Is personally attractive Superintendent 20 65 15 0 0 0 Low .0005 Psychologist 12 53 34 0 0 1 Low Gives credit for contribu Superintendent 58 40 1 0 0 1 Low .0005 tions of others when sub Psychologist 82 14 1 0 1 2 Median mitting reports or publishing papers Has had experience as a Superintendent 34 51 14 0 0 1 Low .0005 classroom teacher Psychologist 16 50 31 2 0 1 Low Is in good health Superintendent 44 56 0 0 0 0 Median .01 Psychologist 30 67 3 0 0 0 Median Has personal vigor Superintendent 40 59 1 0 0 0 Median .01 ' Psychologist 26 69 5 0 0 0 Median 148 TABLE 15— Contisued Item Per cent of Total Response Group H <DrH O 4J CO CQ « O 51 as ■u P >vW H O r4 U ,08S 9U -U 4 WO ho fcTJ PBS c o O S5 «|H r -l Q 04J <j ►»>% « O SO f f l a as ss s 0 0 p 0 0 C V 0 0 g O 0 ) 8 <W O OtI r -i -H s & 3 *H CO Is emotionally mature Superintendent 79 20 0 0 0 1 Median .001 Psychologist 62 36 1 0 0 1 Median Is secure Superintendent 61 38 0 0 0 1 Median .0005 Psychologist 40 55 3 0 0 2 Low Is even tempered Superintendent 51 48 0 0 0 1 Median .0005 Psychologist 30 61 7 0 0 2 Low Is able to establish a Superintendent 63 37 0 0 0 0 Median .0005 confident relationship with Psychologist 43 50 6 0 0 1 Low individuals and groups of all kinds Holds the (Ph.D.) Doctor Superintendent 0 11 85 1 0 3 Median .05 of Philosophy degree Psychologist 1 22 75 1 1 0 Median • P * SO 150 "absolutely must" section. The psychologist group had middle Intraposition agreement. The superintendents* in traposition consensus was low. The opinion that a psychologist absolutely must have had experience as a teacher was held by 34 per cent of the superintendents. Thirty-one per cent of the psycholo gists had the opinion that they may or may not have had experience as a teacher. Fifty per cent of each of the two groups were of the opinion that a psychologist preferably should have served as a teacher. Intraposition consensus was low among both groups for this statement. Almost all of the respondents had the opinion that a psychologist should be in good health. Forty-four per cent of the superintendents held the opinion that psycholo gists absolutely must have good health. For both groups intraposition consensus fell in the middle range. For the item regarding personal vigor of psycholo gists the per cent of difference in the "absolutely must" category was almost the same for both groups as was found in the good health item just mentioned. Again the intra position agreement fell in the median range. Nearly four-fifths of the superintendents had the 151 opinion that psychologists absolutely must be emotionally mature. Of the psychologists 62 per cent had opinions of this intensity. The intraposition agreement of the psy chologists and superintendents was middle. More superintendents than psychologists checked the "absolutely must" category for the statement, "is secure." The intraposition consensus was low for psychologists and middle for superintendents. Slightly over 50 per cent of the superintendents had the opinion that psychologists absolutely must be even tempered. Only 30 per cent of the psychologists held such strong opinions. The intraposition agreement was low for psychologists and middle for superintendents. Less than half of the psychologists responded to the "absolutely must" category of the statement, "is able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds." Sixty-three per cent of the superin tendents had the opinion that psychologists absolutely must have this attribute. As in the two items just mentioned, intraposition consensus was middle for superintendents and low for psychologists. The attainment of the Ph.D. was responded to by 152 selecting the "may or may not*' category for more than three-fourths of both groups. The psychologists were slightly In favor of the degree. Consensus was middle among superintendents and psychologists. The statistically significant Interposition differ ences between the superintendents and psychologists for items from the attributes instrument were the result of in tensity of opinion rather than direction of opinion. For ten of the eleven items about the school psychologist's attributes there was affirmative opinion among a majority of each role definer group. The one exception was the item about the school psychologist holding the Ph.D. degree. Over three-fourths of the superintendents and three-fourths of the psychologists held the opinion that a school psy chologist may or may not hold this degree. The interposi tion disagreement resulted because some of the psycholo gists felt the school psychologist should hold the Ph.D. degree. Superintendents tended to have stronger opinions about school psychologists possessing certain personal attributes than did the school psychologists. A large per centage of superintendents selected the "absolutely must" 153 category for the following statements about the attributes of school psychologists: (1) Is personally neat, (2) Is personally attractive, (3) Is In good health, (4) has per sonal vigor, (5) Is emotionally mature, (6) Is secure, and (7) Is even tempered. Having had experience as a classroom teacher was an attribute that many superintendents felt that the psycholo gist should have. About one-third of the superintendents selected the "'absolutely must" category for their opinions while one-third of the psychologists thought they may or may not have had classroom experience. The one Item for which most of the school psycholo gists selected the "absolutely must" category was that dealing with the psychologist giving credit to others for contributions of others when submitting reports or publish ing papers. The superintendents' opinions were affirmative but not so intense as those of the psychologists. More superintendents than psychologists were of strong opinions that the school psychologist be able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds. Both groups held affirmative opinions about this attribute. 154 It seems apparent that superintendents generally have higher expectations for school psychologists in regard to personal attributes. Psychologists seem to feel these personal attributes are important but they do not have as Intense opinions about them. A Comparison of Faculty Members' and Superintendents * Opinions In this section of the chapter the items for which there was a significant interposition difference according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion are presented. The interposition disagreements are those of the college and university faculty members as compared to the school super intendents. To facilitate interpretation of these data the intraposition consensus for each item is given. The number of items of interposition disagreement was less for the superintendents and faculty members than for the superintendents and psychologists. This may not be altogether the result of more agreement about the state ments of role expectation for the former group. The number of faculty personnel who returned opinionaires was twenty- seven. When compared to the 354 psychologists or 178 superintendents the number of faculty members is low. 155 The power of a statistical test of significance In creases with the number of cases. The power of this type of statistical procedure is defined as the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is in fact false and thus should be rejected (11:10). Consideration of the per centage frequency distributions shows in many cases high percentage differences for specific categories between the faculty members and the superintendents where there were no significant interposition differences. It is suggested that this situation may exist because of the small number of the university and college faculty members who partici pated in the investigation. Expectations for the school psychologist*s participations Three of eleven items from the participations role expectation instrument were significant according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria. These interposition differ ences are shown in Table 16. Nearly all of the faculty members had affirmative opinions about membership in the American Psychological Association. Almost half of the superintendents responded to the "may or may not” category. The intraposition % TABLE 16 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PARTICIPATIONS: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE FACULTY MEMBERS Per cent of Total Response Item Group 0 ) u 3 H o u CO CO 31 t —l ■8 4>r-4 «H 3 Q ) O tts •M M O 0 55 11 &S4J •HO 3 a 0 ) > - l m 3 4) O UX1 (X| C/3 i —4 4 ) 4J 4J O 3 25 i —4 O JJ II < £ M % CO 3 0 0 3 4 ) 0 0 3 O o 4 ) 1 <H O O *r4 £ I CO Is a member of the American Faculty Psychological Association Superintendent Is a member of Division 16, the Division of School Psy chologists of the American Psychological Association Faculty Superintendent 19 70 7 0 0 4 Median .005 7 48 43 0 0 2 Low 7 70 19 0 0 4 Median .01 2 43 49 0 0 6 Median Is a member of the American Faculty 0 70 Personnel and Guidance Superintendent 1 40 Association 26 54 0 0 0 4 High .025 0 5 Median 157 consensus was middle £or the faculty people and low for the superintendents. Not as many faculty personnel held the opinion that psychologists should be members of Division 16 or the Divi sion of School Psychologists of the American Psychological Association as compared to the desirability of membership in the parent organization. Again almost half of the superintendents checked the "may or may not" category. Intraposition consensus for this item was middle for both groups of role definers. Seventy per cent of the faculty members had af firmative opinions about membership in the American Person nel and Guidance Association. Only 40 per cent of the superintendents were of the opinion that membership in this organization was desirable. The intraposition agreement for the faculty group was high. For the superintendents the intraposition consensus was in the middle range. There were three items from the participations instrument for which there were interposition differences according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria between faculty members and superintendents. Each of these state ments was concerned with the school psychologists' membership in some professional organization. In each case about half of the superintendents indicated that school psychologists may or may not belong to these professional groups. The remaining half of the superintendents' group held affirmative opinions about pro fessional memberships for school psychologists. A majority of the faculty members held affirmative opinions about school psychologists being members of the American Psycho logical Association, Division 16 of the American Psycho logical Association, or the American Personnel and Guidance Association. The interposition disagreement was the result of intensity of opinion rather than a difference in direc tion of opinion between faculty members and superintend ents . Expectations for the school psychologist's performances The faculty members' and superintendents' responses to the performances instrument were compared to obtain interposition consensus. As shown in Table 17 there were significant differences in interposition agreement for three of the ninety-four items of the performances instru ment for these two groups of role definers. TABLE 17 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERFORMANCES: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE FACULTY MEMBERS Per cent of Total Response Item Group 4J 3 O 4J CO CO 4 i ■8 H’ O < U r - J 3 4 ) O HO «0 SB U C t f M O 02 4 > r - l p 4 ) 5 ££ II 4 ) J J t -1 O U CO CQ 41 C O 4 ) I P O $ C O 0*H C O a £ m 4 ) H *H < 0 9 4 ) £ £ > So 55 O C _ > a ) i - ( MCO Making diagnostic studies to identify the physically handicapped Interviewing, discussing, counseling with pupils Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to ad-* ministrators on promotion Faculty Faculty Faculty Superintendent 33 37 11 11 0 8 Low .05 20 25 42 11 1 1 Low 63 19 15 0 0 3 Median .01 30 43 23 3 0 1 Median 0 4 30 22 41 2 Low .05 1 7 45 28 17 2 Low i-1 Ul o 160 For the statement, "Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handi capped," 70 per cent of the faculty people held affirmative opinions. Only 45 per cent of the superintendents had opinions in the two affirmative categories. There was low intraposition consensus for both groups of role definers. The interposition disagreement for interviewing, discussing, and counseling with pupils was the result of intensity of opinion of the two groups. The "absolutely must" category for this statement was selected by 63 per cent of the faculty group as compared to 30 per cent of the superintendents. There was middle intraposition agreement for both the superintendents and faculty personnel. The college and university faculty members had strong negative opinions about school psychologists serving as resource persons to administrators in regard to promo tion of teachers and other personnel. Less than half of the superintendents had negative opinions about this role. Low intraposition consensus prevailed for both groups. The power of a statistical test such as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test increases or decreases with the size of the number of participants in the group 161 being considered. Because there were only twenty-seven faculty members involved in the study it may be possible that the small number of items for which there were sta tistically significant differences for the performances instrument is the result of this fact. Consideration of the percentage frequency distributions tends to support this observation. For the item about the school psychologist inter viewing, discussing, and counseling with pupils, both groups of role definers held affirmative opinions. The interposition disagreement was the result of more faculty members holding intense positive opinions about this be havior than superintendents. In the case of the school psychologists making diagnostic studies to identify the physically handicapped the opinions of members of both groups ranged from "abso lutely must" to "preferably should not." Most of the superintendents* opinions were located in the affirmative categories or in the "may or may not" section of the instrument. The faculty members generally held affirmative opinions about psychologists conducting studies with this type of child. Thus interposition differences were the 162 result of Intensity rather than direction of opinion. Many members of both groups held negative opinions about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to admipistrators in matters involving promotion of other staff members. The interposition disagreement was caused by more faculty members than superintendents holding in tense negative feelings about this responsibility. Expectations for the school psychologist's attributes Thirty-one per cent of the items from the expecta tions instrument for the school psychologist's attributes had interposition disagreement according to the Kolmogorov- Smimov criteria. Most of the interposition consensus differences between the faculty members and superintendents were the result of the superintendents' group holding more intense opinions about the items. The percentage frequen cies and other data for these items are given in Table 18. Slightly over one-tenth of the faculty people had the opinion that psychologists absolutely must be per sonally neat. Almost half of the superintendents had opinions of greatest intensity about this attribute. Intraposition agreement was low for faculty members and low for superintendents. TABLE 18 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S ATTRIBUTES: SUPERINTENDENTS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE FACULTY MEMBERS Item Group Absolutely 1 Must g Preferably £ Should H of Total Response ►vU ►> rIO r - l U ,085 OU ( U ■U «# +J 0 § 085 « 02 OH rH f S si *8 4 SS S3 § Consensus Level of Significance Is personally neat Faculty 11 63 22 4 0 0 Low .025 Superintendent 40 57 2 0 0 1 Low Is personally well groomed Faculty 7 74 15 4 0 0 Low .025 Superintendent 37 61 1 0 0 1 Median Gives credit for contribu Faculty 89 11 0 0 0 0 High .025 tions of others when sub Superintendent 58 40 1 0 1 1 Low mitting reports or publishing papers Has had experience as a Faculty 15 44 41 0 0 0 Low .05 classroom teacher Superintendent 34 51 14 0 0 1 Low Has personal vigor Faculty 15 82 3 0 0 0 Median .05 Superintendent 40 59 1 0 0 0 Median Is even tempered Faculty 18 67 15 0 0 0 Low .01 Superintendent 51 48 0 0 0 1 Median 163 TABLE 18— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item Group Absolutely Must Preferably Should May or May Not Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not No Answer Consensus Has a sense of humor Faculty 19 81 0 0 0 0 High Superintendent 45 55 0 0 0 0 Median Is a good citizen and Faculty 11 79 7 0 0 3 Median serves society Superintendent 47 51 1 0 0 1 Median Is able to establish a Faculty 30 59 11 0 0 0 Low confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds Superintendent 63 37 0 0 0 0 Median Holds the doctor's degree in Psychology, Including Educational Psychology Faculty 4 52 44 0 0 0 Low Superintendent 3 26 71 0 0 0 Median Holds the (Ph.D.) Doctor of Faculty 4 33 63 0 0 0 Low Philosophy degree 0 11 85 1 0 3 Median o > 8 o O-H iH«H I CO .05 .01 .025 .05 165 Thirty-seven per cent o£ the superintendents held the opinion that a school psychologist absolutely must be well groomed. Only 7 per cent o£ the faculty people checked this category. The superintendents had middle in traposition consensus and the faculty members had low con sensus. Approximately nine-tenths of the faculty group had the most intense opinions about the psychologist giving credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. Approximately half of the superin tendents responded to the "absolutely must" category for this statement. A fact of importance is that the intra position consensus for the faculty members was high and for the superintendents low. One-third of the superintendents held the opinion that a school psychologist absolutely must have had ex perience as a classroom teacher. Not more than 15 per cent of the faculty members had as strong opinions. Low intra position consensus prevailed for both groups. Almost half of the superintendents held opinions that psychologists absolutely must have personal vigor. Only 15 per cent of the faculty were so inclined. Both groups of role definers had middle intraposition agreement. 166 Over half of the superintendents checked the "abso lutely must" category for the statement, "is even tempered." For the faculty group 19 per cent held most intense opinions about this attribute. Intraposition agreement was low for faculty people and middle for superintendents. Of the superintendents' group almost half held the opinion that the psychologist absolutely must have a sense of humor. Not quite one-fifth of the faculty group se lected this category. Faculty intraposition consensus was high as compared to middle for the superintendents About one-half of the superintendents chose the "absolutely must" category for the statement, "is a good citizen and serves society." Slightly over one-tenth of the faculty people's responses were found in this category. Both groups of role definers had middle intraposition agreement. Sixty-three per cent of the superintendents had the opinion that school psychologists absolutely must be able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds. Only 30 per cent of the faculty mem bers checked this category. For the faculty group intra position consensus was low while it was middle for the superintendents. 167 Over half of the faculty members were of the opinion that the psychologist preferably should hold the doctor's degree in Psychology including Educational Psy chology. Approximately one-fourth of the superintendents had affirmative opinions about this degree. Intraposition consensus was low for the faculty group and middle for the superintendents. Eighty-five per cent of the superintendents checked the "may or may not" category for the statement, "holds the Doctor of Philosophy Degree." One-third of the faculty checked the opinion that possession of this degree would be desirable. Consensus was low for faculty group and middle for the superintendents. The interposition differences between faculty mem bers and superintendents for the school psychologist's attributes instrument were caused by intensity of opinion within the two groups. There were almost no negative opinions for any item in either group. There were eleven items for which there was inter position disagreement according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria between faculty members and superintendents for the attributes instrument. For seven of these eleven 168 statements the differences were the result of the fact that many of the superintendents checked the "absolutely must" section of the instrument while the psychologists chose the "preferably should" category. The seven Items which had this type of interposition differences were: (1) is per sonally neat, (2) is personally well groomed, (3) has per sonal vigor, (4) is even tempered, (5) has a sense of humor, (6) is a good citizen and serves society, (7) is able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds. Almost all of the superintendents held the opinion that the school psychologist should have had experience as a classroom teacher. There was interposition disagreement because almost half of the faculty members held the opinion that the school psychologist may or may not have had ex perience in the classroom. In regard to the two items about the school psy chologist possessing the doctor's degree, many members of both groups seemed to feel this was not too important since they checked the "may or may not" category. However, enough of the faculty members selected the affirmative categories so that interposition disagreement obtained. 169 There was only one other item where the faculty members had more Intense positive opinions than did the superintendents. This occurred for the statement about the school psychologist giving credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. A Comparison of Faculty Members* and Psychologists* Opinions The least number of items for which there was sig nificant interposition disagreement occurred in the com parison to the responses of school psychologists and col lege and university faculty members. The low frequency of disagreement may also be partially the result of the low number of the faculty member sample. There are fewer items of interposition disagreement between faculty members and the psychologists them between faculty members and superin tendents. This may suggest that the faculty members are more in agreement with the psychologists than the superin tendents when considering the role of the school psy chologist. In this section of the chapter the items for which there were statistically significant differences according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria between the faculty 170 members and psychologist groups of role deflners are pre sented. A subsection Is devoted to each of the three role definition Instruments vised by the two groups. Expectations for the school psychologist's part ic ipations There was only one item from the participations instrument for which there was significant interposition disagreement between faculty members and psychologists. Seventy per cent of the faculty group, as shown in Table 19, held the opinion that psychologists preferably should be members of the American Personnel and Guidance Association. A nearly equal percentage of psychologists selected the "may or may not" category for this item. Intraposition consensus was high for the faculty members and middle for the psychologists. Expectations for the school psychologist^ performances There was interposition disagreement between faculty members and psychologists for only three of the items from the performances instrument. The specific statements and the accompanying data are presented in Table 20. * TABLE 19 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PARTICIPATIONS: FACULTY MEMBERS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Per cent o£ Total Response ►*u HO pH 0) £ .055 g> § 4J *# 4J«0 4J O 5 00 9 JH'O M O M’ S 9 25 CO fl i —I OSS OH rH C 4) Item Group ow ««g . ^ o« % « COCO O O >,►, 0)0 OOB fl SI £6 ££ KM 31 £ I Is a member of the Faculty 0 70 26 0 0 4 High . 005 American Personnel and Psychologist 1 34 60 1 0 4 Median Guidance Association Level of Significance TABLE 20 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERFORMANCES: FACULTY MEMBERS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Per cent of Totel Response Item Group H O 0 4J a « 3 £ X H U'O OrH •W 0 P 2 tf" f l ) « H 9 2 2 s 4J no OSS I —t e-u •u o ^ 25 O 4J « o a 3 3 c o 3 £ 3 S « 0 0 a o o V O S 0*3 iH * H ICO Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to ad ministrators on techniques of recruitment Faculty 0 11 30 41 15 3 Low Psychologist 3 14 53 24 6 0 Median .025 Conducting special studies regarding current charac teristics or patterns of longitudinal growth Identifying sound and sig nificant research Faculty 7 33 56 0 0 4 Psychologist 16 50 31 1 1 1 Faculty 19 37 41 0 0 3 Psychologist 27 54 16 1 0 1 High .05 Median Median .05 Median 173 For the statement, "Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to administrators on techniques of recruitment," over half of the faculty mem bers had negative opinions. For the same item over half of the psychologists responded to the "may or may not" section of the instrument. Intraposition consensus was low for the faculty members and middle for the psychologists. Half of the psychologists had the opinion they preferably should conduct special studies regarding current characteristics or patterns of longitudinal growth. Over half of the faculty members were of the opinion psycholo gists may or may not perform this duty. Intraposition agreement was high for faculty members and middle for psy chologists. Eighty-one per cent of the psychologists' opinions were affirmative for identifying sound and significant re search. Only 56 per cent of the faculty members held affirmative opinions about this performance. For both groups the intraposition consensus was in the middle range. The interposition disagreement for the three items from the performances instrument was the result of the in tensity of opinion among psychologists and among faculty 174 members.. For example, there were opinions among both groups that ranged from "absolutely must" or "preferably should" to "absolutely must not" for the statement about the school psychologist serving as a resource person on techniques of recruitment. About half of the faculty mem bers had negative opinions about this duty while a similar percentage of psychologists indicated that they may or may not be concerned with recruitment. Thus the faculty mem bers* group had more members than the psychologists* group of role definers who held negative opinions. The other two items about school psychologists' performances were involved with the school psychologist conducting special studies regarding current character istics or patterns of longitudinal growth and identifying sound and significant research. The majority of psycholo gists had affirmative opinions about members of their pro fessional group performing these two types of services. On the other hand, while many of the faculty members also had affirmative opinions about the tasks, about half of them indicated that the school psychologist may or may not participate in these performances. 175 Expectations for the school psychologist's attributes Just one of the thirty-five items from the attri butes instrument was significant according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criteria. This item of interposition disagreement between faculty members and psychologists is presented in Table 21. Over three-fourths of the faculty members held opinions that a school psychologist preferably should be a good citizen and serve society. Over one-third of the psychologists placed this item in the "absolutely must" category. Intraposition consensus was low for the psy chologists and middle for the faculty members. Summary After the opinionaires were returned by the par ticipants they were analyzed statistically. Interposition consensus was defined as the agreement between groups of role definers about some aspect of the school psycholo gists' professional participations, performances, and attributes. Interposition consensus was determined by use of a statistical technique known as the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Two-Sample Test. This statistical procedure provides TABLE 21 EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST*S ATTRIBUTES: FACULTY MEMBERS' OPINIONS COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Per cent of Total Response Item Group ow m g r tO CO Q ) O 31 rH f< r-| O pH 14 « « JO A * O 3 4J « 4J < WO j * « 3 kt) MO M’ O 395 t o f l A OJrH 0 85 «rH r - J C < W <H9 O W < CO v5 «• a CO 85 8 Is a good citizen and Faculty 11 78 7 0 0 4 Median .05 serves society Psychologist 37 56 6 0 0 1 Low Level of Significance 177 a method for testing the significance of the difference between two distributions. Calculations were made between each of the three role definer groups for the three role expectation instruments. The first comparison that was made was between the responses of the school superintendents and the school psychologists. The opinions of these two groups about the school psychologists' participations were analyzed first. The differences in interposition consensus between super intendents and psychologists occurred for statements about psychologists belonging to or participating in professional organizations. One-third of the items about school psychologists' performances had statistically significant differences between superintendents and school psychologists. These significant differences were the result of one of the groups having opinions of greater intensity than the other group of role definers rather than opinions of an opposite direction. This fact was also true for the items about school psychologists* attributes. The superintendents had stronger expectations for the personal attributes of school psychologists than did the psychologists although both 178 groups tended to hold affirmative opinions about the attri butes . The power of a statistical test increases with an increase in the number of cases included in the distribu tion. The size of the faculty group of role definers was relatively small when compared to the other two groups of role definers. This may account for the fact that there were fewer items of significant difference between the faculty members and the superintendents and between the faculty members and the school psychologists. For items about school psychologists' participa tions there were significant differences in interposition consensus between faculty members and superintendents about the desirability of the school psychologist being a member of several professional organizations. The differences in opinion between the faculty members and the superintendents in regard to school psychologists' performances and attri butes were the result of intensity of opinion rather than opinions in an opposite direction. There were very few items from the three role ex pectation instruments for which there was a significant interposition difference between the faculty members and 179 the school psychologists. Again the few differences that did exist were not the result of differences In direction of opinion. . CHAPTER VI AN ANALYSIS OF INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS After the opinionaires were returned by the par ticipants the data gathered were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis. One of the purposes of this sta tistical analysis was to determine the degree of intraposi tion consensus among the separate groups of role definers for statements from the three role expectation instruments. As was true in the School Executive Studies, intra position consensus was defined as the degree of consensus among a particular group of role definers for a statement about a specific role behavior. In the present study the three groups of role definers were school superintendents, school psychologists, and college or university faculty members. The statements about the behavior of school psy chologists were presented to the role definers by means of an opinionaire which contained three role definition instruments. These three role definition instruments were: 180 181 (1) Expectations for the School Psychologist's Participa tions instrument; (2) Expectations for the School Psycholo gist's Performances instrument; and (3) Expectations for the School Psychologist's Attributes instrument. Intra position consensus was determined for each statement of the three instruments by each group of role definers. In order to determine intraposition consensus it was necessary to calculate variance scores. Variance scores are a calculation of the deviation of scores about the mean. A distribution of scores was obtained for the responses of each group of role definers to each statement from the role expectation instruments. A variance score was calculated by means of data processing equipment for each distribution of opinions. Variance scores were interpreted in relation to their numerical value. The lower the numerical value of the variance score the higher is the consensus among the members of the group of role definers about the statement being considered. Conversely, the higher the numerical value of the variance score the lower is the intraposition consensus among the group for the item. After the variance scores were obtained they were 182 ranked In order of numerical value. The ranking was con ducted for each statement of the three role expectation Instruments by separate role deflner groups. In this manner It was possible to make a judgment about the rela tive degree of consensus among role definers for each Item. An Item was said to have high, middle, or low con sensus. The 27 per cent of the total Items for each role expectation Instrument that had the highest numerical values were said to have low consensus. The 27 per cent of the items that had the lowest numerical value were con sidered as having high consensus. The remaining 46 per cent of the items had middle consensus. In succeeding sections of this chapter each item of the role expectations instruments that had high or low consensus is presented. The presentation is made by spe cific role definer groups. The intraposition consensus of each item of the three instruments is given first for the school superintendents' group. Secondly, intraposition consensus of school psychologists is set forth. The final group for which intraposition consensus is considered are the faculty members. As a result of this analysis it was possible to 183 locate those Items about the professional behavior of school psychologists that a particular group of role de finers tended to be in agreement about. The direction of agreement, whether it be positive, negative, or permissive, was also made available. The statements about school psy chologists' behavior that role definers could not agree upon were obtained by means of this analysis. Intraposition Consensus of Superintendents In this subsection of the chapter the intraposition consensus of the superintendents' group of role definers is presented. Items of high consensus are presented and then items of low consensus given for each of the three role expectation instruments. The order of appearance of the instruments is as follows: (1) Expectationsfor the School Psychologist'8 Participations, (2) Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances, and (3) Expecta tions for the School Psychologist's Attributes. Expectations for the school psychologist's participations For this instrument three items made up 27 per cent of the total items. Thus there were three items of high 184 consensus for this Instrument and three items of low intra position consensus also. Items of high intraposition consensus.— As shown in Table 22 the item for which there was highest agreement among the superintendents was, "Visits other schools and agencies." Almost three-fourths of the superintendents held the opinion that psychologists should do this visit ing. Of the superintendents three-fourths held the opinion that psychologists preferably should attend local, regional, state, and national meetings of psychological groups. Sixty per cent of the superintendents' opinions about writing articles for publication in professional journals fell in the "may or may not" category. It appears from the data presented above that superintendents think it is important for school psycholo gists to visit other schools and agencies and to attend professional meetings of psychological groups. Writing articles for publication is a participation that superin tendents seem to feel is not of great consequence. Items of low intraposition consensus. — The items jfor which there was low intraposition consensus among TABLE 22 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item a > 4J P i —I O 4J GO CO II •8 0) rH «H P 0 ) O £ 5 U O O 55 r-l O 8 * HT3 O H <W P 0 ) O 0 ) 3 H o a 8 4i 55 $ GO £ Variance Score Visits other schools and agencies Attends local, regional, state, and national meetings of psychological groups Writes articles for publication in professional journals 17 74 8 0 0 1 14 75 11 0 0 0 1 32 66 0 0 1 .247 .248 .248 186 superintendents for the participations instrument are given in Table 23. The item that had the highest variance score and so the lowest intraposition consensus was, "Is a member of the American Psychological Association." Nearly half of the superintendents held the opinion that psychologists may or may not belong to this organization. At the same time just over half of this group held affirmative opinions about the American Psychological Association. As in Chap ter V affirmative opinions are considered as the opinions that fell in the "absolutely must" or "preferably should" categories of the instruments. There was also low intraposition agreement about membership in the National Education Association. Approxi mately half of the superintendents had the opinion that psychologists preferably should be members of the National Education Association. Forty per cent of the superintend ents seemed to be of the opinion that this membership was not of great importance in that they checked the "may or may not" category. Thirty per cent of the superintendents were of the opinion that psychologists may or may not attend local, re gional, state, and national meetings of educational groups. TABLE 23 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item 4J 3 H O t o g 5 3 5 WO O r j 3 0 ) O as ■M u o o ss II ts-w tH O 4 h*0 0 ) tH 3 o ) o Q ) 4J 4J O 3 SB iH O V t o g s i 09 4 S B Variance Score Is a member of the American Psychological Association Is a member of the National Educa tion Association Attends local, regional, state, and national meetings of educational groups 48 52 61 43 40 30 .380 .352 .328 M 00 • s J 188 However, 67 per cent of these administrators placed their opinions in the two affirmative categories. The data presented above seem to show that there is low intraposition consensus among the superintendents in regard to psychologists belonging to professional, psycho logical, and educational organizations or attending meet ings of the educational groups. The opinions are divided among the affirmative and "may or may not" categories of response. Expectations for the school psychologist's performances On this instrument twenty-five statements repre sented 27 per cent of the total group. In this section of the chapter the items of highest and lowest consensus are enumerated. Items of high intraposition consensus.— The 27 per cent of items representing high intraposition consensus, as shown in Table 24, included several that related to psy chologists making diagnostic studies of individual chil dren. Superintendents held affirmative opinions that psychologists absolutely must or preferably should make individual studies to identify the gifted, the mentally TABLE 24 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item I —l 0 ) 4J 9 nt O 4J 00 (0 3 a 4) r - l <H 9 0 } 5 £(0 4-i u o 0 25 II r-10 i MTJ 4)rj 9 0 ) o t - 4 0 ) 4J 4J O 9 SB I — I o u a a II V i % <0 z Variance Score Making diagnostic studies of indi vidual children to identify the mentally handicapped 79 19 1 0 0 1 .192 Summarizing and interpreting findings of an individual child study 66 25 2 0 0 7 .265 Making recommendations for placement of children in special programs 67 28 5 0 0 0 .323 Obtaining information from teachers 65 30 5 0 0 0 .328 Making diagnostic studies of indi vidual children to identify the emotionally disturbed 63 28 5 0 0 4 .331 Using cumulative records in making studies of individual children 55 28 5 0 0 12 .361 189 TABLE 24— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item Absolutely . Must Preferably Should May or May Not Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not N o Answer 1 Variance Score t Conferencing about case study follow** up with teachers 51 42 7 0 0 0 .392 Re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up study 42 46 8 0 0 4 .393 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted 42 48 8 0 0 0 .394 Participating in community health organizations 5 45 47 2 0 1 .395 Being available as a speaker to com munity organizations 17 60 23 0 0 0 .397 Obtaining information from the school nurse 54 38 8 0 0 0 .406 Conferring with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems 50 42 7 1 0 0 .413 190 TABLE 24°-Continued Per cent of Total Response Item o : » H O 4 - J e « si H •§ O H <M 9 O O uj: fico 4J u o OS II >.44 X H O H .OS O 4J O 4i O n*o 3S OH H < 4 4 p O 4J o 5 0 0 tt JH-1 3 JB9 A co M S CO •S Z Variance Score Conferencing about case study follow- up with parents 43 47 10 0 0 0 .423 Obtaining information from parents 52 38 9 0 0 1 .427 Conferencing about case study follow- up with administrators 46 44 10 0 0 0 .432 Following up the study of a child by means of conferences 32 52 14 0 0 2 .435 Using the case conference to develop plans and recommendations for helping ithe child 23 33 7 0 0 37 .450 Conferencing about case study follow- up with health personnel 27 53 19 0 0 1 .457 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the socially maladjusted 43 44 12 0 0 1 .462 TABLE Item Maintaining regular communications with professional persons Working with the staff in designing research to investigate current problems Maintaining regular communications with community agencies Making observations of the individual child in the classroom Participating in curriculum planning for special classes Variance Score 193 |handicapped, the socially maladjusted, and the emotionally disturbed. The statement of highest lntraposltlon con sensus was that Which dealt with school psychologists making diagnostic studies of mentally handicapped children. Over three-fourths of the superintendents were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must perform this service. Over half of the superintendents had opinions of greatest intensity about using cumulative records in making studies of individual children. Psychologists preferably should make observations of individual children in the classroom was an opinion shared by 55 per cent of the superintendents. The opinions of more than half of the superintend ents were found in the "absolutely must" classification for the items relating to obtaining information from teachers, parents, and the school nurse. Sixty-six per cent of the responses of superintendents were also placed in this cate gory of greatest intensity for the statement, "Summarizing I I land interpreting findings of an individual child study." I Affirmative opinions seemed to predominate for | the item, "Using the case conference to develop plans and 194 recommendations for helping the child." Twenty-three per cent of the opinions of the administrators were found In the "absolutely must" category and 33 per cent In the "preferably should" section. High intraposition agreement originated with the superintendents for the items which considered conferencing with parents, teachers, administrators, and health person nel. Affirmative opinions were held by nearly 90 per cent of the superintendents for all four of these items from the performance expectations instrument. Eighty-four per cent of the superintendents' group were of affirmative opinions about psychologists following up the study of a child by means of conferences. Nearly the same number of superintendents, or 86 per cent, also checked affirmative sections for the item, "Re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up study." Nearly all of the superintendents seemed to have the opinion that psychologists should make recommendations for placement of children in special programs. Sixty-seven per cent of them had opinions of greatest intensity about this task. A majority of superintendents held affirmative 195 opinions about psychologists maintaining regular communica tions with community agencies and professional persons. In the case of the former, 83 per cent of the superintend ents checked affirmative classifications. In the latter item 86 per cent of the group had affirmative opinions. Almost 90 per cent of the superintendents were of positive opinion about psychologists participating in cur riculum planning for special classes. Of the group about one-third checked the "absolutely must” section and over one-half the "preferably should" classification. Half of the superintendents were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must confer with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems. Most of the other 50 per cent agreed at the less intense level of "preferably should." Participating in community health organizations and being available as a speaker to community organizations were items which had high intraposition consensus for superintendents. Over three-fourths of the superintendents held affirmative opinions about psychologists as speakers. Of the superintendents half checked affirmative opinions ! about participation in community groups. The final item for which there was high intraposi- tion agreement was that Involving opinions about psycholo- gists working with the staff In designing research to investigate current problems. The majority of opinions for this question fell in the affirmative categories. Of the group of superintendents over half checked "preferably should." A summary of the data presented above shows that most of the items that had high intraposition consensus among superintendents for the performances instrument were those that were about some aspect of the individual child study. Superintendents seemed to be agreed that the school psychologist absolutely must or preferably should perform duties that involve the psychological study of children. Many superintendents held the opinion that a school psychologist should participate in and serve as a speaker to community organizations. The group was also agreed that the psychologist should maintain regular communications I with other professional persons and other community | agencies. I Finally, the superintendents' group had high intra- position consensus for the school psychologist participating 197 in curriculum planning for special classes. These adminis trators were in favor of this responsibility for the school psychologist. Items of low intraposition consensus-As a result of the variance scores obtained for them, an additional 27 per cent of the items from the performances instrument were said to have low intraposition consensus for superin tendents. These items of low intraposition agreement are ranked by variance score from the highest numerical value to the lowest and are presented in Table 25. Superintendents were not of the same opinion about psychologists making diagnostic studies of individual chil dren to identify the physically handicapped. Forty-two per cent of the superintendents held the opinion that psy chologists may or may not perform this duty while 45 per cent of them were of affirmative opinions. There was low intraposition consensus for superin tendents in the matter of psychologists administering, scoring, and interpreting tests for individual child study. Under consideration were intelligence tests, achievement |tests, personality questionnaires, and projective tech niques such as the Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test, TABLE 25 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item rI < D I O 4J aa eg $ 1 4 ® h <H 9 £ co SsiJ H O 4 “ OH «« 9 O O O 4J 5 * O 4J SO » 4 & Variance Score Carrying on therapy for individual children Being available to meaibers of school !board, when desired, to discuss psychological implications of School policies Carrying on therapy for parents Consulting on request with teachers or other employees on their personal problems Carrying on therapy for groups of children Carrying on therapy for groups of parents 12 21 28 20 16 32 29 18 10 6 15 30 24 22 6 15 30 26 17 7 20 37 18 15 5 13 36 23 21 3 6 1.570 1.530 1.387 1.295 1.272 1.249 H VO 00 TABUS 25— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response >s A L i ! ■ H 0 ) H £ “ V gas 9 2 3 A co Absolute: Must Not M s Item Absolut Must Prefers Should May or May Not S B 4 i Variance Score Administering, scoring, and inter- i preting, for individual child study, achievement tests 21 25 35 17 1 1 1.090 Providing free play situations in which j children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior for individuals 6 20 44 19 8 3 .957 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically ;handicapped 20 25 42 11 1 1 .919 Preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program 15 21 51 11 2 0 .912 Providing free play situations in which children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior for small groups 3 21 46 19 9 2 .904 199 TABLE 25— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response Item ►* H 4 ) I o u 09 09 4: >s H *3 MTJ 0)H d ® o ££ u no O 55 II ►»« H O I S3 < h d S 2 £ CO Q > 4J tig o * j 09 09 U s 09 SB Variance Score Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, projective techniques such as Rorschach Ink Blots, Thematic Apperception Test, Blacky Pictures, etc. 44 26 24 3 1 2 .896 Working with the group testing program by supervising test administration 13 28 44 12 2 1 .876 Being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the de velopment and use of cumulative records 14 42 32 10 2 0 .857 Working with the group testing program by administering group tests 3 11 39 37 9 1 .840 Working with the group testing program by training teachers in test adminis tration 16 46 28 8 2 0 .833 Being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the de velopment and use of anecdotal records 18 44 28 7 2 1 .824 to O o TABLE 25--Continued Fur cent of Total Response Item h < D I O *J CO C O 4: s H •s M'O 0>H <M 9 P 2 £ m si It HO fl* 83 <H £ q > o e *j tig O 4J a a £ ! a £ Variance Score Presenting to the administration the evidence of the needs of the school district for regular programs 19 29 42 7 1 2 .807 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, personality questionnaires 20 35 34 7 1 3 .799 Being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of home school reports 9 34 41 12 2 2 .798 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, intelligence tests 49 28 19 4 0 0 .789 Working with the group testing program by training teachers in test inter pretation 29 46 20 3 2 0 00 r ' - • ro o H TABLE 25— Continued Item Per cent of Total Response I — I Q > U 0 a 2 $ 1 1 f f l rH (H 0 8 S £ CO 4J MO 02 >»4J r-4 O i M’ d «*h «w p < o o ►* H Q) 4-> 3 B O a g 5 l S9 5 £ Variance Score Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to adminis trators on promotion Presenting results of group tests to the school board Presenting results of group tests to lay groups 12 8 31 29 45 46 50 28 8 8 17 2 3 1 2 .776 .769 .758 ro o fo 203 or the Blacky Pictures. For each of these Items the opinions ranged from the category of "absolutely must" to "preferably should not." There was a wide diversity of opinion among the superintendents about the role in the group testing pro gram. Of nine items about the group testing program, five were low according to the intraposition criteria. The statement, "training teachers in test administration," had the greatest amount of intraposition consensus in that 75 per cent of the superintendents checked the affirmative categories. Sixty per cent of the superintendents also checked affirmative categories for the psychologist taking the responsibility for training teachers in test adminis tration. Nearly half of the superintendents were of the opinion that psychologists preferably should not administer group tests. For the items, "preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program," and "supervising test administration," nearly half of the superintendents chose the "may or may not" category. Superintendents had low intraposition agreement for the psychologist presenting test results to the school board and to lay groups. The range of opinion fell from . 2 0 4 the "absolutely roust" to the "absolutely must not" cate gories. In each case about half of the superintendents' opinions were found In the "may or may not" section of the performances expectation Instrument. The question of therapy being conducted by school psychologists had very low intraposition agreement among superintendents. For the statements regarding carrying on therapy for individual children and groups of children about one-third of the superintendents had affirmative opinions and about one-third had negative opinions. In the case of therapy for parents or groups of parents nearly one-half of the superintendents* opinions were located in the negative categories of the instrument. Providing free play situations in which children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of be havior for individuals and for small groups were two items which provoked low intraposition agreement on the part of superintendents. For both items the frequency distribu tions were distributed almost perfectly between the "abso lutely must" and "absolutely must not" classifications of |the performances instrument. 205 Although there was low intraposition consensus for the item nearly half of the superintendents had affirmative opinions about the psychologist presenting to the adminis tration the evidence of the needs of the school district for regular programs. Sixty-one per cent of the superin tendents checked affirmative sections of the instrument concerning the psychologist being available to members of school board, when desired, to discuss psychological im plications of school policies. Approximately half of the superintendents' role definer group held negative opinions about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to the adminis tration on matters of promotion of teachers and other personnel. Negative opinions also prevailed among super intendents when they were presented the item, "Consulting on request with teachers or other employees on their per sonal problems." Slightly less than half of the superin tendents checked the "absolutely must" or "preferably should not" sections of the performances instrument. There was low intraposition consensus among super intendents for the two items regarding in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative 206 records and anecdotal records. In both cases more than half of the opinions of this group of role definers were located in the two affirmative classifications. In regard to in-service training of personnel for home-school reports just under half of the superintendents held affirmative opinions. The data presented in this section may be sum marized as follows: The question of whether the school psychologist should carry on therapy in the school elicited responses from superintendents ranging from "absolutely must" to "absolutely must not." There was very low intra position consensus among the administrators' group about this duty. It did not matter that the statements asked for opinions about therapy for individual children, for groups of children, for parents, or for groups of parents. There was low consensus among superintendents for all four cate gories of therapy. A very similar kind of performance of school psy chologists was represented by the two statements about the psychologist providing free play situations in which chil dren may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes 207 of behavior for individuals and for small groups. Again the superintendents checked all of the five response sec** tions of the performances instrument. This meant that the intraposition consensus was very low. The superintendents were not agreed in their opinions about the school psychologist's role in the group testing program of the school. There were seven statements about the school psychologist's work with the group testing program that had low intraposition consensus among the superintendents. The seven statements about the school psychologist's responsibilities to the group testing pro gram that the superintendents did not concur in were: (1) preparing calendars and schedules for the testing pro gram; (2) supervising test administration; (3) administer ing group tests; (4) training teachers in test adminis tration; (5) training teachers in test interpretation; (6) presenting results of the group tests to the school board; and (7) presenting results of the group tests to lay groups. Apparently many superintendents held the opinion that school psychologists should not work with the members of the school board in matters other than that of the group 208 testing program. There was a wide diversity of opinion among superintendents about the statement in regard to the school psychologist being available to members of the school board, when desired, to discuss psychological im plications of school policies. In-service training is another type of performance of school psychologists that provoked a range of opinions among the administrator group of role definers. There was low intraposition consensus for statements about the psy chologist being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records, in the development and use of anecdotal records, and in the development and use of home-school reports. The use of certain tests by psychologists when con ducting an individual study of a child made for low intra position consensus among superintendents. They had both negative and positive opinions about the school psycholo gist using intelligence tests, personality questionnaires, projective techniques, and achievement tests with the individual child. In regard to individual studies of chil dren, superintendents held the opinion that school psy chologists should and should not make diagnostic studies 209 to identify the physically handicapped child. Low intraposition consensus prevailed also among the superintendents' group for statements about the school psychologist presenting to the administration the evidence of the needs of the school district for regular programs and serving them as resource persons in matters of promo tion of other staff members. Finally, the members of the superintendents' group of role definers could not reach agreement on the school psychologist consulting on request with teachers or other school employees about their per sonal problems. Expectations for the school psychologist's attributes There were thirty-five statements about the school psychologist's attributes in the attributes instrument. Twenty-seven per cent of the thirty-five statements meant that nine items from the instrument would be considered as having high consensus among superintendents. The nine items that had the highest variance score were selected as the statements of lowest consensus among the superintend ents' group of role definers. In this section of the chapter the items of high 210 intraposition consensus are presented first. Secondly, the statements from the attributes instrument that had low consensus are set forth. Items of high intraposition consensus. — As can be observed in Table 26, nearly 100 per cent of the superin tendents agreed in the opinion that psychologists abso lutely must safeguard professional confidences. Four of the nine items from the attributes instru ment that had high intraposition consensus were items dealing with the age of school psychologists. For ages twenty-five to fifty-five, nine-tenths or more of the superintendents checked the "may or may not" category. For the age bracket fifty-six to sixty-five there were 88 per cent responses in the "may or may not" category. There was high intraposition agreement about the sex of the psychologist. Over 90 per cent of the superin tendents selected the "may or may not" category for both imale and female classifications. There was a slight i 'affirmative selection of opinions of 5 per cent for men and a small negative selection representing 3 per cent of 'the total for women. j Eighty-8ix per cent of the superintendents were of TABLE 26 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS’ GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item r) a ) 4 - i 9 H o <w cd e g S i H ■§ UnO a ) 5 £ co 4J m o O SB II ts-u r - l O rO SB < s VfO O r-J 9 0 ) O £ (O SS i —4 ® 4J 4J O 92 H O +J a a S3 i - i f c o 5 Variance Score Is 46 to 55 years of age 0 1 94 0 0 5 .011 Is 25 to 35 years of age 0 1 94 1 1 3 .063 Is a woman 0 0 94 2 1 3 .067 Is 36 to 45 years of age 1 6 90 0 0 3 .076 Is a man 0 5 91 0 1 3 .092 Is 56 to 65 years of age 0 0 88 8 1 3 .100 Holds the (Ed.B.) Doctor of Education degree 0 10 86 1 0 3 .102 Holds the doctor's degree in Education 0 9 87 2 0 2 .104 Safeguards professional confidences 97 2 0 0 0 1 .110 212 the opinion that a psychologist may or may not hold the doctor's degree In Education whether it be the Doctor of Education degree or not. However, about 10 per cent of the administrators had the opinion that possession of the degree would be desirable. It appears from the data presented above, that age or sex are attributes that superintendents agree are not of critical importance to the role of the school psy chologist. This group of administrators also do not con sider the possession of the doctor's degree to be very important. The superintendents did agree very strongly that the school psychologist should safeguard professional confidences. Items of low intraposition consensus.— The variance scores for nine items in the expectations for the school psychologist's attributes instrument placed them in the low intraposition consensus category. These items are pre sented in rank order in Table 27. Over 90 per cent of the superintendents' opinions were in the negative sections of the instrument although the variance score indicated low intraposition consensus. A like number of superintendents checked negative TABLE 27 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE SUPERINTENDENTS* GROUP Per cent of Total Response ; Item Absolutely Must Preferably Should May or May Not Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not No Answer 1 • Variance Score Accepts fees for services from indi viduals who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency 2 0 7 8 81 2 .639 Has had experience as a classroom :teacher 34 51 14 0 0 1 .444 Undertakes duties for which he is not i qualified 1 0 3 24 70 2 .419 iHas had experience in a psychological or psychiatric clinic 6 51 41 1 0 1 .372 Is married / 5 26 66 0 1 2 .355 Is personally attractive 20 65 15 0 0 0 .342 Gives credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers 58 40 1 0 0 1 .325 213 TABLE 27— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item © I s H O 4J ( 0 O Q 4 : tK H •s S3 a ) o £ M 4J fc o O SB II >s*J rIO ,OSB © rH «W a 9 £ M © 4J O 5 * o w « m « 1 Variance Score Has high Intelligence Is personally neat 33 40 61 57 0 .303 .281 TABLE 27— Continued Far cent of Total Ratponta a m «* Ita® JS S3 84 83 I Varltnca a II li i Bat high Intel lig<rac« It pertenally neat 33 61 5 0 0 1 .303 40 57 2 0 0 1 .281 215 categories for the Item about the school psychologist accepting fees for services from Individuals who are en titled to his services through an institution or agency. The low intraposition agreement of these items may be the I result of some ambiguity of meaning of the item. Two items for which there was low intraposition I j consensus among the superintendents were the statements i i about the school psychologist being personally neat and i i ! personally attractive. Superintendents also had some di versity of opinion about giving credit for contributions ofj others when submitting reports or publishing papers. j Experience as a classroom teacher was an attribute I ■ ' that also fell in the category of low intraposition con sensus. Almost half of the superintendents held the opinion that a psychologist may or may not have had ex perience in a psychological clinic, despite the low intra position agreement. An item about psychologists having high intelli gence was also in the low intraposition consensus group. Opinions varied from "absolutely must" to "may or may not" for this statement. Whether a school psychologist was married or not 2161 was an Item of low intraposltlon agreement. Sixty-six per I cent of the superintendents' opinions were located in the "may or may not" category so the remaining 40 per cent of i this group caused the disagreement. ’ ! ; . | By way of summary the nine items from the psycholo-j i i gists' attributes instrument discussed here were those of | the lowest intraposition consensus among the superintend ents. However, nearly all of the statements obtained the : I Imajority of the superintendents* opinions in the affirma tive sections of the instrument. Thus the low agreement | i for the items of this instrument was not comparable to the |level of low intraposition consensus for the other two role S i i I expectation instruments for the superintendents' responses.! Intraposition Consensus of Psychologists ! i i i In this section of the chapter the responses of the| school psychologists' group of role definers are presented. They are considered in relation to the agreement among the psychologists about items from the three role expectation instruments. The statements that produced the 27 per cent of the variance scores of the lowest numerical value are given as high intraposition consensus. The items that had 2171 I i the greatest numerical value In the amount of 27 per cent of the total group of psychologists are said to have low Intraposition consensus. i The statements that had high and low intraposition consensus for each of the three role expectation instru ments are set forth. The items from the participations instrument are reported first. Next the statements of high |and low intraposition consensus from the performances |instrument are discussed. The final part of this section jdescribes items from the attributes instrument. | Expectations for the school psychologist*s participations Three items from the participations instrument i represent 27 per cent of the total, in the tables that i accompany the text the three statements are ranked from high to low and low to high according to the individual variance scores. Items of high intraposition consensus.--The three items presented in Table 28 are those that show the highest intraposition agreement. The statement that had the highest intraposition consensus dealt with the school psy chologists attendance at local, regional, state, and TABLE 28 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS* GROUP Item Per cent of Total Response © -u O 4 - 1 a m s i ■3 © t H < 4 - t p 2 s i It >S*J H O ■2 s5 < 8 ^ J3 iM 9 44 W O 3 55 H O 4 - 1 n a 4: 44 i $ Variance Score Attends local, regional, state, and national meetings of psychological groups Visits other schools and agencies Reads up to date professional pub lications 20 74 4 0 0 2 15 74 8 0 0 3 60 37 0 0 0 3 .215 .229 .242 national meetings o£ psychological groups. Seventy-four per cent of the psychologists held the opinion that psy chologists preferably should participate in this type of professional meeting. | Nearly all of the psychologists were of affirmative opinions in regard to their reading up-to-date professional publications. Nine-tenths of this group chose the "abso lutely must" or "preferably should" sections of the par- | ' | jticipations instrument for the item about visiting other ischools and agencies. The above data seem to indicate that the psycholo gists were affirmative in their opinions; thus the group i ! |attained high intraposition consensus. The three items involved related to the school psychologist participating in activities that further their professional competencies.1 Items of low intraposition consensus.--The state ments from the participations instrument that had the three variance scores of highest numerical value are given in Table 29. These items have the lowest intraposition con sensus of the eleven used in the instrument. The item for which there was the lowest intraposi tion consensus among psychologists concerned participation TABLE 29 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FRCM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item 4) u 3 O 4J a e si M*0 4) <H m 9 4) O £ CO 4J M O 085 II 5 % f i * S3 m a o) o £ co >s H O U 3 * O 4i a « s i u % C O £ Variance Score Participates in Parent Teachers Association meetings, service clubs, women*8 organizations, workshop sessions, and conventions of regional or state organizations Is a member of the National Education Association Is a member of the American Psychological Association 52 13 38 58 35 52 24 .415 .413 .396 OZZ 221: In Parent Teachers Association meetings, service clubs, women's organizations, workshop sessions, and conventions i |of regional or state organizations. The psychologists' j i ; responses to this statement ranged from "absolutely must" to the "preferably should not" categories. j Membership in the National Education Association ; i was another participation for which there was diversity of j ; I opinion among the psychologists. Forty per cent of this i ' ! group was of the opinion that psychologists may or may not |belong to the National Education Association, while the i . > : j remaining 60 per cent of the responses were found in other : j i sections of the instrument. i j The psychologists' opinions about membership in the American Psychological Association were comparable to the 1 ; opinions held about the National Education Association. The "may or may not" section was selected by 43 per cent of the psychologists for the item about membership in the American Psychological Association, with the remainder of ithe responses in several other sections of the instrument. The above data seem to indicate that psychologists are not in agreement in their opinions about membership in psychological or educational organizations of a national character. Further, this group of role definers has low intraposition consensus about participating in local com munity organizations. Expectations for the school psychologist's performances There were ninety-four items on the performances ! instrument about school psychologists' performances. i I ; |Twenty-five items represent 27 per cent of the total. jAccordingly there were twenty-five items of high intraposi- j i i |tion consensus and twenty-five items of low intraposition i i jconsensus. 1 | Items of high intraposition consensus.— The items that represent the highest intraposition consensus for this instrument are given in Table 30. The twenty-five items I are ranked in the table according to variance scores from ; i those of lowest numerical value or highest intraposition consensus. There was high intraposition consensus for the items regarding psychologists making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted, the mentally handicapped, the socially maladjusted, the educationally retarded, and the emotionally disturbed. Nearly 90 per cent TABLE 30 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item < D 4J & 0 4J (0 « * *4*0 0>H m 3 « o a! w 4J fc 0 0 55 > > > > ►>*> HO fl* 83 0) o 43 CO a « u sS H 0 W 09 C O SI u § CO I Variance Score Summarizing and interpreting findings of an individual child study 80 13 3 0 0 4 .217 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the mentally handicapped 82 15 2 0 0 1 .225 Making recommendation for placement of children in special programs 73 24 2 0 0 1 .235 Conferring with teachers who request help in coping with prpil problems 74 24 2 0 0 0 .253 Conferencing about case study follow- up with teachers 67 31 1 0 0 1 .253 Obtaining information from teachers 74 22 3 0 0 1 .256 Obtaining information from the child 75 18 5 0 0 2 .328 223 TABLE 30— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response Item ►» iH a ) p 3 O P CO CO s « l W I £ ■8 MX) a>r-j «w p « o p 03 P M O O SB II ►»P rH O 8 * MX) a> • - < <m p e o iJw ►» H (9 P P O 5 * O P CO CO 8 1 M I 0} £ Variance Score Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the emotionally disturbed 72 24 3 1 0 0 .336 Using the case conference to develop plans and recommendations for helping the child 29 31 4 0 0 36 .361 Obtaining information from parents 58 36 5 0 0 1 , .379 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the socially maladjusted 55 39 5 0 0 1 .381 Conferencing about case study follow- up with administrators 54 39 7 0 0 0 .391 Conferencing about case study follow- up with parents 50 42 7 0 0 1 .392 Maintaining regular communications with professional persons 50 42 8 0 0 0 .398 224 TABUS 30— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response Item o 4J 3 rl O 4J a c o ■s Or-J CM 3 q> o £ OT 4J u o OSS II >%4J rH O r Q SB <0 M*0 Q) H CM 3 4) O fiS 0 ) M M O S * O M CO CO <SC 5 o SB Variance Score Re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up study 43 46 9 0 0 2 .410 Maintaining regular communications with community agencies 47 43 9 0 0 1 .418 Advising and collaborating with school personnel offering remedial instruction 30 56 12 0 0 2 .428 Following up the study of the child by means of conferences 35 52 13 0 0 0 .431 Using cumulative records in making studies of individual children 44 34 7 0 0 15 .436 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, intelligence tests 70 21 8 1 0 0 .480 Obtaining information from the school nurse 41 46 12 0 0 1 .444 225 TABLE 30-“Continued Per cent of Total Response Item 9 u s * iH O 4J 09 CO $ ►* i —I *§ M’ O 0rl m p 0) o 4J U O o z ►*4J H O ,o s (8 VfO ? 2 M ^3 CM CO X 3 5= rl O U CO CO si 3 1 a 4 Z Variance Score Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted 42 Making diagnostic studies of individual 49 children to identify the educationally retarded Working with the school staff on 30 providing optimum conditions for learning Consulting with teachers and adminis- 34 trators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment 46 40 53 54 10 10 15 10 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 .446 .449 .458 .459 to ro ON m of the psychologists selected the two affirmative sections of the instrument for these five items. In the case of the statement about the diagnostic studies of mentally handi capped, 82 per cent of the psychologist group of role definers held the opinion of greatest intensity. Over three-fourths of the psychologists had opinions that they should use cumulative records in making studies of individual children. In making studies of chil dren there was high intraposition consensus among the psy chologists that they should obtain information from the child, teachers, parents, and the school nurse. Over 90 per cent of the psychologists held affirmative opinions about gathering information from these persons. There was also high agreement among the psychologists that they should administer, score, and interpret intelligence tests when doing an individual child study. Over nine-tenths of the psychologists were affirmative in their opinions that they should summarize and interpret their findings from an individual study. Using the case conference to develop plans and re commendations for helping the child was an item for which the psychologist selected the affirmative categories. 228 Thirty-seven per cent of the psychologists failed to re spond to this statement. This omission seemed to be a result of the placement of the item at the top of one page of the opinionaire. Apparently many of the psychologists overlooked the item. Psychologists had high intraposition consensus about conferencing about case study follow-up with parents, teachers, and administrators. Over 90 per cent of the psy chologists had affirmative opinions about this type of conference. Eighty-seven per cent of the psychologists were of the opinion that they absolutely must or preferably should follow up the study of a child by means of conferences. Re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow- up study was a task that psychologists had high affirmative intraposition agreement about. Nearly three-fourths of the psychologists selected the category of greatest intensity of opinion for the job of making recommendations for placement of children in special programs. Over half of the psychologist group of role definers were of the opinion that they preferably should advise and collaborate with school personnel 229 offering remedial instruction. In the matter of communications psychologists had high intraposition consensus. Ninety per cent or more of this group chose the two affirmative sections of the per formances instrument for the statements about maintaining regular communications with community agencies and profes sional persons. Working with the school staff on providing optimum conditions for learning was a task that psychologists had high agreement about. Fifty-three per cent of this group checked the "preferably should" and 30 per cent the "abso lutely must" classifications of the instrument. Eight-tenths of the psychologists chose the affirmative categories when presented the statement about consulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment. Approximately three- fourths of the psychologists were of the opinion that they absolutely must confer with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems. It will be noted by way of summary that nearly all of the items that had high intraposition consensus for the school psychologist group of role definers dealt with 230 the school psychologist working with individual case study procedures. There was affirmative agreement among the psychologists that they should make diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted, the mentally handicapped, the emotionally disturbed, the socially mal adjusted, and the educationally retarded. In conducting these studies the psychologists had the opinion that they should obtain information from the child, teachers, parents, and the school nurse. They agreed that they should use cumulative records and ad minister intelligence tests as part of the study. The psychologists had the opinion that, after the study is completed, there should be follow-up by means of conferences. The conferences should be held with teachers, administrators, and parents. After the follow-up is accom plished the psychologists had the opinion that they should re-assess and re-evaluate the study in light of the in formation gained in the follow-up. Psychologists had high intraposition agreement that they should make recommendations for placement of children in special programs. The psychologists also agreed that they should confer with teachers who request help in 231 coping with pupil problems. The psychologists agreed that they should work with; the staff in several areas of endeavor. They held affirma tive opinions that they should be concerned with methods for providing optimum conditions for learning. This group of role definers had high intraposition agreement for the task of consulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment. School psychologists were also agreed in their opinions that they should advise and collaborate with school personnel offer ing remedial instructions. Finally, there was high intraposition consensus among the school psychologists about professional com munication. They agreed that they should maintain regular communications with other professional persons and other agencies outside of the school. Items of low intraposition consensus.--Twenty-five items were selected from the performances instrument be cause they had low intraposition consensus according to the variance score criteria. These statements representing the lowest 27 per cent of the opinions of school psycholo gists by numerical value for intraposition agreement are given in Table 31. Psychologists did not evidence agreement of opinion about making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped. While half of the psychologists held affirmative opinions about this work nearly one-third of them selected the "may or may not" section of the instrument. There was low intraposition consensus among the psychologists about their administering, scoring, and in terpreting several types of individual tests. Nearly half of the psychologists were of the opinion that they may or may not use achievement tests or personality question naires. Opinions about projective techniques ranged from the "absolutely must" to the "preferably should not" sec tions of the performances instrument. Low intraposition consensus prevailed for several performances in the group testing program. Opinions were found for psychologists in categories of both negative and affirmative direction for the statements about preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program, super vising test administration, training teachers in test ad ministration, and training teachers in test interpretation. ZABLE 31 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS* GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item H a 4J 3 H O 4J 00 SO S 3 >s H •s > 4 *0 0 ) 1 - 1 0} _ US u no O 2 ss J&8 ■§* HTJ 0) r-J *w 3 0) 5 £ CO « V tl £ 3 2 H O 4 J SO 00 >n 3 «ce n s 0 0 • 3 2 Variance Score Carrying on therapy for individual children 10 20 42 19 9 0 1.750 Consulting on request with teachers or other employees on their personal problems 4 17 30 30 14 5 1.109 Carrying on therapy for parents 5 16 40 24 14 1 1.105 Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to adminis trators on promotion 2 12 30 31 24 1 1.079 Carrying on therapy for groups of children 9 21 48 14 8 0 1.022 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped 24 35 32 5 3 1 .979 233 TABLE 31— Continued Per cent of Total Response rl 0) H •S SU H O ■5* Absolutely Must Not S Item Absolut Must Prefers Should May or May No1 M'd Or-I 4 - 1 3 <u q £ CO CO 55 Variance Score Carrying on therapy for groups of 5 17 47 parents Administering, scoring, and Inter- 20 22 45 pretlng, for Individual child study, achievement tests Regarding teachers and other personnel, 2 17 43 serve as a resource person to adminis trators on selection Administering, scoring, and inter- 44 28 24 preting, for individual child study, projective techniques such as the Rorschach Ink Blots, Thematic Apper ception Test, Blacky Pictures, etc. Presenting to the administration the 18 29 44 evidence of the needs of the school district for regular programs 20 10 27 10 11 .957 .926 .885 .882 .827 234 TABLE 31— Continued Item Absolutely 1 Must 5 ? © Preferably * Should £ 3 rt May or o May Not 9 Preferably © Should Not M f Absolutely *d Must Not § Q B © No Answer 1 Variance Score Consulting with teachers and adminis trators on matters of teaching method for educational activities 13 35 39 11 2 0 .827 Working with the group testing program by preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program 6 15 49 24 4 2 .819 Working with the group testing program by training teachers in test adminis tration 12 39 36 10 2 1 .815 Working with the group testing program by supervising test administration 6 19 48 23 4 0 .802 Presenting results of group tests to the school staff 18 35 38 8 1 0 .802 Being available to members of school board, when desired, to discuss psychological implications of school policies 40 37 16 4 1 2 .794 235 TABLE 31— Continued Per cent of Total Response >s _l ft « ■ Item Absolute] Must Preferab] Should May or May Not ri v ■8* P T3 <U r-1 9 O O P JG 0< CO Absolute] Must Not No Answei Variance Score Being responsible for the in-*service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records 12 37 40 9 2 0 .789 Providing free play situations in which children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior for individuals 6 22 49 16 4 3 .783 Interpreting the school and its pro grams to the public 16 41 33 7 1 2 .775 Presenting results of group tests to the school board 13 32 43 9 1 2 .775 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, personality questionnaires 21 30 42 4 1 2 .765 ro u> O' TABLE 31— Continued Per cent of Total Response ►> ►> ►> r— I r - i iH O iH M V .O £> 2S « P g > P flJ P flJ P O > p h t 3 u o h - o p a s « Item r-i a>rH o ss a» --j t h d Variance O P *H p ««P O P < o g <a OO ►» >» f l > Q 09 n Score O P * M p »P p O P 09 09 4)0 fl> O 09 09 si gg fiS 51 s Working with the group testing program 22 46 26 4 1 1 .739 by training teachers in test inter* pretation Participating in curriculum planning 9 35 43 10 2 1 .734 for regular classes Being responsible for the in-service 15 46 31 6 1 1 .730 training of staff members in the development and use of anecdotal records ro ' v j 238 Psychologists were not in agreement that they should or should not present results of group tests to the school staff or to the school board. Nearly half of the opinions were located in affirmative sections for this type of presentation with the remainder in the "may or may not" or negative categories of the instrument. There was very low intraposition consensus of opinion among psychologists about the use of therapy in the school. The percentages tend to accumulate towards the center from both directions of opinion for items about the psychologist carrying on therapy for individual children, groups of children, parents, and groups of parents. The range of opinion among psychologists was similar for pro viding free play situations in which individual children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior. Psychologists were not agreed in their opinions about presenting evidence of the needs of the school dis trict for regular programs to administrators. Nearly one- half of this group checked the two affirmative categories. Another 44 per cent of the psychologists responded in the "may or may not” classification. Forty per cent of the psychologists had opinions that they absolutely must be available to members of school boards when desired, to discuss psychological implications of school policies. On the other hand, 21 per cent of this group had permissive or negative opinions about this type of consultation. Participating in curriculum planning for regular classes was another item for which there was low intra position agreement among psychologists. Over half of the psychologists had affirmative opinions about doing this job and 44 per cent of their responses were in the "may or may not" section of the instrument. Psychologists had low intraposition consensus for the task of consulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for educational activities. Opinions were located in the permissive or negative cate gories for over half of the psychologists in regard to this item. Over one-third of the psychologists* group held negative opinions about serving as a resource person to administrators in the promotion and selection of teachers 240 and other personnel. 0£ the group, however, some held affirmative opinions about this task. Interpreting the school and its programs to the public was an item that over half of the psychologists placed in the "absolutely must" or "preferably should" category. A small percentage of this group held the opinion that psychologists preferably should not do this type of interpretation. There was a diversity of opinion among psycholo gists about their in-service training responsibilities. Half of the group were affirmative in their opinions al though some held negative opinions about being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the de velopment and use of cumulative records and anecdotal records. By way of summary, it may be stated that the low intraposition consensus for the above statements from the performances instrument for the psychologist role definers was the result of the fact that some psychologists checked response categories from "absolutely must" to "absolutely must not" in every case. The statements about the school psychologist conducting therapy were among those in the low 241 intraposition group. Psychologists held opinions both positive and negative in nature about carrying on therapy for individual children, for groups of children, for par ents, and for groups of parents. In this same area of professional behavior psychologists also had differing opinions about providing free play situations in Which the children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior for individuals. The psychologists did not agree on the necessity of their making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped. School psychologists seem to question of support the use of certain tests in the diagnostic study of individual children. The tests that they did not agree upon were individual achievement tests, projective techniques, and personality questionnaires. Many psychologists held the opinion that they should work with the school group testing program. Others' opinions indicated that they did not think they should do this work. The tasks that proved to have low intraposition consensus were: preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program, training teachers in test administration and test interpretation, supervising test administration, and presenting the results of the group tests to the school staff and to the school board. There were both negative and positive opinions about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to administrators in matters of promotion and selection of other staff members. Psychologists also did not agree about consulting with other staff members on their personal problems even if these persons requested that the school psychologist do so. The items about the in-service training responsi bilities of the school psychologist made for disagreement among the psychologists. Not all psychologists held the opinion that they should be responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records and anecdotal records. There was disagreement about the school psycholo gists' part in other aspects of the school program. This group did not agree that they should consult with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for edu cational activities. They did not agree that they should present to the administration evidence of the needs of 243 the school district for regular programs. Another item that elicited opinions of a positive and negative nature dealt with the school psychologist participating in cur riculum planning for regular classes. The school psychologists had low intraposition con sensus for performances regarding availability of the school psychologist to members of the school board, when desired, to discuss psychological implications of school policies. This group did not agree that they should inter pret the school and its programs to the public. Expectations for the school psychologist’s attributes There were thirty-five items in this instrument. Twenty-seven per cent of the total consisted of nine items. The nine items having variance scores with the lowest numerical values were considered to have high intraposition consensus. The 27 per cent of the items that had the high est numerical value were said to be those with lowest intraposition consensus. Items of high intraposition consensus.— The items from the school psychologist’s participations instrument for which there was high intraposition consensus according 244 to the criteria just given are shown in Table 32. One o£ these statements was, "Safeguards professional confidences." Nearly all of the psychologists held the opinion that they absolutely must have this attribute. Four of the items of the attributes instrument dealt with the age of school psychologists. For the three statements about ages twenty-five to thirty-five, thirty- six to forty-five, and forty-six to fifty-five, almost all of the psychologists selected the "may or may not" classi fication. While there was high intraposition agreement about the age bracket fifty-six to sixty-five, as repre sented by 87 per cent of responses in the "may or may not" category, 10 per cent of the psychologists selected the two negative sections of the instrument. There was agreement among the psychologists that the sex of the school psychologist was not essential to performance of the job. Almost all of the psychologists placed their opinions in the "may or may not" section for the statements, "is a man" and "is a woman." School psychologists absolutely must safeguard pro fessional material and tests. This opinion was held by 96 per cent of the psychologist group of role definers. TABLE 32 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS1 GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item rH a ) 4J 3 H O 4J s o a 3 MT? 4>rH 4 ) O JC CO 4J K O osb II H O ■§* 83 m 3 ? § i t ! CO <U 4J US 3 Z o w a a £> 9 <X U % a § Variance Score Is a woman 0 0 97 2 1 0 .053 Is 46 to 55 years of age 0 1 96 0 1 2 .071 Is a man 0 3 94 0 1 2 .082 Is 36 to 45 years of age 0 4 93 0 1 2 .108 Safeguards professional confidences 97 2 0 0 1 0 .117 Is 25 to 35 years of age 0 1 95 1 2 1 .117 Safeguards professional materials and tests 96 3 0 0 0 1 .119 Is 56 to 65 years of age 1 0 87 9 1 2 .171 Holds the doctor's degree in Education 1 10 84 5 0 0 .197 N cn 246 An attribute for which the psychologists held per missive opinions dealt with the possession of a doctor's r degree in Education. The high intraposition consensus was the result of 84 per cent of the psychologists placing their responses in the "may or may not" category of the instrument. The above data reveal that school psychologists believe that the age of an individual is not pertinent to their effectiveness as a school psychologist. They also seem to believe that whether a school psychologist is a man or woman is not important. The psychologists had strong opinions about safe guarding professional confidences and professional material and tests. Nearly all of the psychologists selected the "absolutely must" section of the instrument for these two statements. Items of low intraposition consensus.— Table 33 presents the nine items from the school psychologists* attributes instrument that had lowest intraposition con sensus for psychologists. Material in this table shows that there was low agreement about whether the psychologist should be personally attractive. TABLE 33 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS' GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item rW « 4J 3 H O 4J QB S 5l 0 1 rj 3 0) O £ 6 4J H O O * II w o .O 2 <0 h’ O (l)rj «M 3 o) o £co O 4J u o 3 * O 4J CO n 51 u s a 3 & Variance Score Accepts fees for services from indi viduals Who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency 2 1 6 7 82 2 .646 Has had experience as a classroom teacher 16 50 31 2 0 1 .564 Undertakes duties for which he is not qualified 1 0 2 30 66 1 .426 Is personally attractive 12 53 34 0 0 1 .411 Has had experience in a psychological or psychiatric clinic 7 53 39 0 0 1 .359 Is able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds 43 50 6 0 0 1 .349 247 TABLE 33— Continued Per cent of Total Response >»-p i —I t H H O i H ( 4 o) ua ua SB o *j q> 4J < 0 +j 0 4JO % D h*d U O u*rJ co Item « h oi-iosserHr-i a Variance SS SS ' S § SS 4 score 5! £6 SS &£ €S S Is even tempered Is secure Is a good citizen and serves society 30 61 7 0 0 2 .344 40 55 3 0 0 2 .338 37 56 6 0 0 1 .334 to • p* 00 249 It is possible that two of the items from the in strument may have been ambiguous to a few of the psycholo gists. Almost 90 per cent or more of the psychologists selected the two negative categories when presented the statements, "Undertakes duties for which he is not quali fied," and "Accepts fees for services from individuals who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency." The ambiguity of the statements may have caused a small percentage of the psychologists to respond to the affirmative categories, thus creating low intraposition consensus according to the variance score criteria. About two-thirds of the psychologists held the opinion that they absolutely must or preferably should have had experience as a classroom teacher. The low intraposi tion consensus resulted from the fact that nearly one-third of the psychologists selected the "may or may not" category for this item. Similar grouping occurred for an item about psychologists having had experience in a psychological or psychiatric clinic. Although there was low intraposition consensus according to the criteria used in the study most of the opinions about a psychologist being secure fell in the 250 two affirmative categories. As in the item just presented • i the low intraposition agreement for the statement, "is even tempered," was the result of the intensity of opinions rather than differences in direction. That a psychologist should be a good citizen and serve society was an attribute for which there was low intraposition consensus among the psychologist group of role definers. There was some diversity in opinion in that 37 per cent of the psychologists chose the "absolutely must" section while 56 per cent selected "preferably should," and 6 per cent chose "may or may not." Several of the attributes items, as described above, were those that dealt with personal characteristics of school psychologists. The school psychologists did not agree that a psychologist should be personally attractive, be even tempered, be secure, be a good citizen and serve society, and be able to establish confident relationships with individuals and groups of all kinds. Past professional experience necessary to the job of the school psychologist was another matter that caused differences in opinion among this group of role definers. Low intraposition consensus prevailed among the school 251, psychologists about their having had experience as 'a class-; room teacher or in a psychological or psychiatric clinic. There were two statements in the attributes instru ment that had low intraposition consensus among psycholo gists that may have been ambiguous to a few of the group. Several psychologists checked affirmative categories for the statements about the school psychologist accepting fees for services from individuals who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency and undertaking duties for which he is not qualified. Intraposition Consensus of Faculty Members The analysis of the data to determine intraposition consensus for college and university faculty members was conducted in the same manner as for the other two groups of role definers. Variance scores were calculated for each of the items from the three role expectation instruments. As explained in Chapter V, the 27 per cent of the items from each instrument having variance scores of lowest numerical value were defined as statements for which there was high intraposition consensus. The 27 per cent of the items from each of the three instruments which had the 252 variance scores of highest numerical value were said to be of lowest intraposition agreement. i In this section of the chapter these data are pre sented by separate role expectation instruments. The items for which there was high intraposition consensus are given first each time. The low intraposition items are then presented. As in previous parts of this chapter the *'abso lutely must" and "preferably should" categories of the instrument were accepted as representing opinions of an affirmative nature. The "may or may not" section was thought to be permissive. When faculty members selected the "absolutely must not" or "preferably should not" classifications, they were considered to be negative opinions. The "absolutely must" and "absolutely must not" categories were accepted as extremes of direction of opinion. These two classifications were also said to be the most intense opinions. Expectations for the school psychologists participations There were eleven items in this instrument. Three items represent 27 per cent of the total items. The three 253 i i items of high intraposition consensus are given. Subse quently the three items of lowest intraposition agreement are presented. Items of high intraposition consensus.— As can be determined from Table 34, the item for which there was highest intraposition agreement among the faculty members concerned membership in the American Personnel and Guidance Association. Exactly 70 per cent of the faculty group had the opinion that psychologists preferably should belong to this organization. Opinions about maintaining close working relation ships with other professional groups were mainly affirma tive. Sixty-three per cent of the faculty members chose the "preferably should" classification while 33 per cent selected the section of greatest intensity. More than half of the faculty members were permis sive in their opinions about school psychologists writing articles for publication. This selection accounted for the high intraposition consensus for this item. Faculty members had high intraposition consensus for three statements from the participations instrument, as indicated above. For the item about the school TABLE 34 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Per cent of Total Response Is a member of the American Personnel and Guidance Association 0 70 26 0 0 4 .196 Writes articles for publication in professional journals 0 30 67 0 0 3 .213 Maintains close working relationships with other professional groups 33 63 0 0 0 4 .226 t*4J H O i - l u jq 2 v u o> 4J o s ®h h § Variance ■g g g S * Score 255 psychologist maintaining close working relationships with j | | other professional groups the faculty members* opinions i were found in the "absolutely must" or "preferably should" ! sections of the instrument. This group of role definers did not hold such strong opinions about the school p sy c h o lo g is t holding membership in the American Personnel and Guidance Association. The high intraposition consensus was the result of the fact that a majority of the faculty members checked the "preferably should” category for the statement. There was high intraposition consensus among the faculty members about the school psychologist writing articles for professional journals. The faculty members apparently did not feel this participation was too import** ant since a large number of them selected the "may or may not" section of the instrument for their reply. Items of low intraposition consensus.— The three items that represent 27 per cent of the total items from the participations instrument are given in Table 35. Par** ticipation in Parent Teachers Association meetings, service clubs, women's organizations, workshop sessions, and con ventions of regional and state organizations were the TABLE 35 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PARTICIPATIONS INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Per cent of Total Response r - | i —I rl O rH M Q ) ,0 ,0 55 « W <U 4J < 0 y 2 £ S J n't* M O M'O S}S5 « Item t - i « h osb «»y « - { fl Variance •9 ® 2 i S ' i f r 8 S 5 § o Score si £6 II J i d SI I Participates in Parent Teachers Associ- 11 48 37 0 0 4 .427 ation meetings, service clubs, women's organizations, workshop sessions, and conventions of regional or state organizations Attends local, regional, state, and 7 63 26 0 0 4 .309 national meetings of educational groups Visits other schools and agencies 15 70 11 0 0 4 .267 256 257 participations for which there was lowest intraposition consensus among the faculty group. Responses fell in sec tions of the instrument from “absolutely must1 1 to “may or may not." A similar pattern of response prevailed in re gard to the statement about attendance of school psycholo gists at local, regional, state, and national educational organizations. The final item considered to be of low intraposi tion consensus was concerned with psychologists visiting other schools and agencies. Faculty members' opinions were almost equally divided in intensity between the “absolutely must" and "preferably should" sections of the participa tions instrument for this statement. For the three items from the participations instru ment, as described above, the low intraposition consensus was not the result of faculty members holding the opinion that school psychologists should not participate in the activities. The difference in opinion was in relation to whether the school psychologist absolutely must or may or may not participate in the activities being considered. 258 Expectations for the school psychologist's performances In this instrument there were placed ninety-four statements about the professional behavior or performances of the school psychologist. To obtain 27 per cent of these items it was necessary to have twenty-five items. Items of high intraposition consensus.--The twenty- five items given in Table 36 are those of highest intraposi tion consensus among the faculty group of role definers. Four of these items of high intraposition consensus among the faculty members are concerned with the psychologist making diagnostic studies of individual children. Eighty- five per cent of the faculty members had affirmative opinions about school psychologists making studies of chil dren to identify the gifted, the mentally handicapped, the socially maladjusted, and the emotionally disturbed. There was high intraposition agreement among the faculty members for the psychologist to obtain information from the child, teachers, parents, the school nurse, social workers, medical doctors, and other agency representatives. Three-fourths or more of the faculty responses were found in the two affirmative classifications for these seven TABLE 36 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Per cent of Total Response Item a> 4J 3 o -u w 00 9 < X ts H ■ 8 4)i-4 <« 9 0 o £ co 4 J no oss SI H O V 4 'O O H 0 O £ 6 X H 0 V 4J 9 U % CO O U 0 « 48 I Variance Score Obtaining information from teachers 74 22 0 0 0 4 .177 Conferring with teachers who request help with pupil problems 67 30 0 0 0 3 .213 Using the case conference to develop plans and recommendations for helping the child 30 41 0 0 0 29 .243 Consulting with teachers and adminis trators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment 11 70 15 0 0 4 .267 Obtaining information from the child 74 19 4 0 0 3 .273 Summarizing and interpreting findings of an individual child study 63 26 4 0 0 7 .310 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the emotionally disturbed 59 26 4 0 0 11 .317 259 TABLE 36--Continued Per cent of Total Response Item Absolutely . Must Preferably Should May or May Not Preferably Should Not Absolutely Must Not No Answer Variance Score Conferencing about case study follow- up with teachers 59 30 4 0 0 7 .320 Obtaining information from parents 44 48 4 0 0 4 .321 Re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up study 44 48 4 0 0 4 .321 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the socially maladjusted 52 33 4 0 0 11 .331 Conferencing about case study follow- up with parents 37 48 7 0 0 8 .377 Advising and collaborating with school personnel offering remedial instruction 44 44 7 0 0 5 .390 Maintaining regular communications with professional persons 44 44 7 0 0 5 .390 260 TABLE 36--Continued Per cent of Total Response tH O ■8* . —1 L H o A 4) 4J I 1 A Item Absolut Must Preferi Should May or May Not Q) rH <M 3 0 0 a * o u to tt < 1 CD a & Variance Score Obtaining information from social workers 22 56 15 0 0 7 .393 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted 44 41 / 0 0 8 .400 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the mentally handicapped 63 22 7 0 0 8 .400 Participating in community health organizations 7 33 56 0 0 4 .403 Working with the school staff on providing optimum conditions for learning 26 56 15 0 0 3 .409 Obtaining information from medical doctors 26 52 15 0 0 7 .425 Obtaining information from the school nurse 37 48 11 0 0 4 .427 TABLE 36— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item tH 0 ) ■M 5 o u CO CO ■§ M-d Q ) tH CM 3 O O £ £ M M © 0 SB ►»M tH O ■8* hTJ 0)tH CM 9 0) O £ £ * 0 ) 4J M O 5 Z O M CO CO S3 M 3 t c o 5 Variance Score Being available as a speaker to com munity organizations Following up the study of a child by means of conferences Maintaining regular communications with community agencies Obtaining information from other agency representatives 11 48 37 30 52 15 44 41 11 26 44 15 0 0 15 .427 .437 .457 .461 262 263 items from the performances instrument. Faculty members had high intraposition agreement about psychologists summarizing and interpreting findings of an individual child study. Sixty-three per cent of the i responses of this group were placed in the section of greatest intensity of opinion. All of the faculty members' opinions were located in the affirmative classifications for the statement, "Using the case conference to develop plans and recom mendations for helping the child." As was the case for the other two groups of role definers almost one-third of the group failed to answer this statement. This too may have been the result of the placement of the item at the top of the instrument. Most of the faculty members were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must or preferably should conference about case study follow-up with parents and teachers. There was also high intraposition consensus among this group for the psychologists re-assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up study. Another statement about the follow-up study was in regard to the psychologist using conferences to conduct it. Eighty-two per cent of the faculty group had affirmative opinions 264 about this task. Nearly 90 per cent of the faculty personnel were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must or pre ferably should advise and collaborate with school personnel offering remedial instruction. A similar percentage of the total faculty group had affirmative agreement of opinion that psychologists should maintain regular communication with community agencies and professional persons. Over half of the faculty members agreed that psy chologists preferably should work with the school staff to provide optimum conditions for learning. Twenty-six per cent of the group selected the "absolutely must" section of the instrument for the same statement. Another item for which there was high intraposition consensus according to the variance score criteria was, "Conferring with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems.” Over two-thirds of the faculty members had the opinion that school psychologists^ absolutely must perform this service. Consulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment was an item for which there was high intraposition consensus among 265 i the faculty members. Seventy per cent of this group of role deflners checked the "preferably should" classifica tion for this statement. Over half of the faculty members held permissive opinions about the psychologist participating in community health organizations. About the same percentage of the faculty group had affirmative opinions about the psycholo gist being available as a speaker to community organiza tions . The data presented above show that many of the items from the performances instrument that had high intra position consensus for the faculty group dealt with the school psychologist conducting studies with individual children. The faculty members agreed that the school psy chologist should make diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the emotionally disturbed, the socially maladjusted, the gifted, and the mentally handi capped . The faculty members had agreement that in the course of the individual study the school psychologist should obtain information from the child, teachers, social workers, medical doctors, the school nurse, and other 266 i agency representatives. The school psychologist should summarize and interpret the findings of an individual study according to the opinion of the faculty role definers. l There was agreement among the faculty members that the school psychologist should follow up the individual study by means of conferences with parents and teachers. They agreed that the case conference should take place in order to develop plans and make recommendations for helping the child. The faculty members seemed to think that the psy chologist should work with the school staff by conferring with teachers who request help in coping with pupil prob lems. This group also agreed that the school psychologist should consult with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment. Several of the high intraposition consensus items involved the school psychologist's professional relation ships with the community. The faculty members held the opinion that the school psychologist should maintain regular communications with other professional persons and community agencies. This group also believed that the school psychologist should participate in community health organizations and be available as a speaker to community organizations. Items of low intraposition consensus.--In Table 37 will be found the items of low intraposition consensus for the performances instrument. The items are ranked accord ing to the numerical value of the variance scores for the faculty members' opinions. There was low intraposition consensus among the faculty group for the item about psychologists making diagnostic studies to identify the physically handicapped. Responses were found in categories ranging from "absolutely must" to "preferably should not." Similar disagreement obtained for the statement about the school psychologist making observations of the individual child in the class room during case study work. As was found for the other two groups of role de finers there was low intraposition consensus among faculty members about the type of tests used in individual child study. While over half of the faculty members were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must or preferably should use achievement tests, personality questionnaires, or projective techniques, nearly one-third of them had TABLE 37 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE PERFORMANCES INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Per cent of Total Response £ XU X fj tH a ) •2 .v •s* 0) 4J Item Absolut Must Prefer* Should May or May Not M’ U O.H < 4 - 1 p 0) O 3 * O 4J 09 09 ja 3 09 5 £ Variance Score Working with the group testing program by preparing calendars and schedules for the testing program 7 26 30 26 4 7 1.036 Working with the group testing program by supervising test administration 7 37 30 15 7 4 1.005 Carrying on therapy for individual children 7 19 44 19 7 4 1 . 0 0 0 Making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped 33 37 11 11 0 8 .960 Interpreting the school and its programs 22 to the public 26 37 11 0 4 .928 Participating in in-service training programs for administrators 18 41 22 15 0 4 .918 oo TABLE 37— Continued Per cent of Total Response - >s m m J H H o> ri £ n u •8* M-O <U rH M - i 3 £ CO 01 1 . 1 A No Answei Item Absolut Must Prefers Should u o 02 S3 Is O 4J CO so S3 Variance Score Conferring with teachers who need help in coping with pupil problems 37 37 19 0 4 3 .917 Consulting with teachers and adminis trators on matters of teaching method for educational activities 11 26 44 11 4 4 .905 Working with the group testing program by administering group tests 0 15 37 26 15 7 .886 Carrying on therapy for groups of children 4 26 44 15 7 4 .883 Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to adminis trators on promotion 0 4 30 22 41 3 .883 Consulting on request with teachers or other employees on their personal problems 0 15 22 44 15 4 .852 269 TABLE 37— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item a ) 4 - 1 J S O +4 n < g 3 I fc’ O 0) H o o 4J O o ss II SK4J r-< O ,Q 55 « 0 fc'O <U r —I M-i a ® 5 X rl © 4J t{ £ 3 * O 4J OB CS si u s (0 4 ss Variance Score Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, achievement tests 26 33 30 7 0 4 .847 Carrying on therapy for parents 0 7 37 30 22 4 .828 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, projective techniques such as the Rorschach Ink Blots, Thematic Appercep tion Test, Blacky Pictures, etc. 30 26 37 4 0 3 .822 Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to adminis trators on techniques of recruitment 0 11 30 41 15 3 .775 Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to adminis trators on selection 0 7 41 30 19 3 .775 Carrying on therapy for groups of parents 0 4 44 26 22 4 .751 270 TABLE 37— Continued Per cent of Total Response Item o > 3 o u a g ■ 8 H*U « r - j 9 0) O as u no OSS II SS4J «HO 8* n*d Ot-j tn n 0) o £ 8 t > s i —I 0 ) *J £ O 3 * O 4J (0 CO 81 t CO Variance Score Being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of home school reports 15 33 41 7 0 4 .705 Being responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records 15 37 37 7 0 4 .698 Administering, scoring, and inter preting, for individual child study, personality questionnaires 22 37 30 4 0 7 .694 Making observations of the individual child in the classroom 22 37 30 4 0 4 .694 Working with the group testing program by consulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing the group testing program 44 26 26 0 0 4 .693 271 TABLE 37— Continued Per cent o£ Total Response Item e I ! O 4J <0 00 ■8 S3 U4 0 9 > 2 ■u ►.4J H O MSB 4 >> H < D +J V o u o Vi’ O 00! o SB 3-3 H O *J Q ) Q 00 t o ss £ tO si 06 2 Variance Score Offering leadership in the nature and 33 30 33 process of evaluation as it pertains to special services Working with the group testing program 33 41 19 by special analysis of the test results in relation to the local program .692 .686 272 273 permissive opinions about the tests. Psychologists working with the group testing pro gram by consulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing the program, preparing calendars and schedules, supervising test administration, administering group tests, and making special analysis of the test results in relation to the local program were tasks for which there was low intraposition consensus among the faculty group. For each of these performances there was a range of direction of opinion. All four statements about therapy had low intra position consensus for the faculty group. Nearly half of the faculty members had negative opinions about psycholo gists carrying on therapy for parents and groups of par ents. In regard to therapy for individual children or groups of children the percentages of response tended to accumulate toward the center from the extremes of direction of opinion. Low intraposition consensus obtained for psycholo gists consulting with teachers and administrators on mat ters of teaching method for educational activities among the faculty group. Opinions were found in categories from 274 the extremes in both directions. There was somewhat less diverse opinion among the faculty members about the item which was concerned with psychologists conferring with teachers who need help in coping with pupil problems. Regarding teachers and other personnel, serve as a resource person to administrators on techniques of recruit ment, selection, and promotion were three statements for which there was low intraposition consensus among the faculty personnel. Some of this group had opinions which fell in the "preferably should" category. However, most responses were found in the negative classifications. Sixty per cent of the faculty group selected the negative categories for the performance of psychologists consulting on request with teachers or other employees on their personal problems. The low intraposition consensus came as a result of the other responses being located in the "preferably should" or the "may or may not" classifica tions of the instrument. There was low intraposition consensus for the item, "Participating in in-service training programs for adminis trators." Opinions were placed in categories from "abso lutely must" to "preferably should not." In-service 275 training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records and home-school reports were perform ances for which faculty members were not agreed. The faculty members were not in agreement about psychologists interpreting the school and its programs to the public. For example, while 22 per cent of this group were of the opinion that psychologists absolutely must do this, 11 per cent checked that they preferably should not. Offering leadership in the nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services was an item which had low intraposition consensus for faculty members. One-third of this group selected the "absolutely must" category, one-third the "may or may not" category, and the remainder of the faculty members chose the "preferably should" classification for their opinions. The data presented above indicate that some of the performances of school psychologists that faculty members did not agree upon concerned the psychologists' responsi bilities in the group testing program of the school. There was low intraposition consensus among the faculty members for the school psychologist working in the group testing program by preparing calendars and schedules, supervising 276 test administration, administering group tests, making a special analysis of the test results in relation to the local program, and consulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing the testing program. Not all of the faculty members were of the opinion that the psychologist should make individual diagnostic studies of children to identify the physically handicapped. There apparently is also some question among members of this group about the use of certain procedures by the school psychologist while conducting an individual case study. The procedures that the faculty members did not agree upon were the use of achievement tests on an indi vidual basis, the use of projective techniques, and per sonality questionnaires. Not all faculty members thought the school psychologist should make observations of the child in the classroom during the course of an individual study. The faculty role definers could not agree upon whether or not the school psychologist should conduct therapy in the school. It did not seem to matter if the therapy was for individual children, groups of children, or groups of parents. 277 In-service training was another performance of the school psychologist upon which the faculty members did not agree. There was low intraposition consensus for state ments about the school psychologist participating in in- service training programs for administrators. Not all faculty members thought the school psychologist should be responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records and home- school reports. Items about the school psychologist working with administrators and teachers in other areas also provoked both affirmative and negative opinions from the faculty members. Not all members of this group agreed that the school psychologist should confer with teachers who need help in coping with pupil problems. This group also did not come to agreement about the psychologist serving as a resource person to administrators on techniques of recruit ment, and the selection and promotion of other staff mem bers. The statement about the school psychologist con sulting with teachers and administrators on methods of teaching of educational activities had low intraposition consensus for faculty members. Finally, not all faculty 278 members thought the school psychologist should consult on request with teachers or other employees on their personal problems. This group of role definers did not all feel that the school psychologist should offer leadership in the nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services. Interpreting the school and its programs to the public was a performance of school psychologists that had low intraposition consensus for faculty members. Expectations for the school psychologist's attributes As has been indicated previously the attributes instrument contained thirty-five items. Nine items repre sented 27 per cent of the total items. Items of high and low intraposition consensus were determined for the faculty group for this instrument by use of the variance score. Items of high intraposition consensus.--There were ten items said to have high intraposition consensus among faculty members. For this instrument for the faculty group, ten items were used rather than nine because two of the statements had exactly the same numerical value for the variance score. Instead of arbitrarily dropping one or 279 the other of the items they were both included in the high intraposition category. As can be observed from Table 38, the two statements are, f l is 56 to 65 years of age,” and "has a sense of humor." Nearly all of the faculty members had opinions of greatest intensity about school psychologists safeguarding professional confidences. Ninety-six per cent of this group selected the "absolutely must" section of the instru ment for this item. Ninety per cent of the faculty members also chose the same category of intensity of opinion for the statement concerning psychologists giving credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publish ing papers. The two items about the sex of the school psycholo gist had the highest intraposition variance score possible. Every one of the faculty members checked the "may or may not" category for the items, "is a man," and "is a woman." There were three additional statements about the age of school psychologists that had high intraposition consensus because most of the faculty members selected the "may or may not" section of the instrument. These items were, "is 36 to 45," "is 46 to 55," and "is 56 to 65." TABLE 38 HIGH INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Item Absolutely i 1 1 Must D s? Preferably H Should o I May or May Not h> t-3 o Preferably £ Should Not * - * % Absolutely Must Not § » © 1 No Answer | Variance Score Is a woman 0 0 100 0 0 0 .000 Is a man 0 0 100 0 0 0 .000 Safeguards professional confidences 96 4 0 0 0 0 .035 Is 46 to 55 years of age 0 0 93 4 0 3 .036 Is 36 to 45 years of age 0 7 93 0 0 0 .068 Accepts fees for services from indi viduals who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency 0 0 0 11 89 0 .098 Gives credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or pub lishing papers 89 11 0 0 0 0 .098 Holds the doctor's degree in Education 0 11 82 4 0 3 .147 Is 56 to 65 years of age 0 0 82 18 0 0 .150 Has a sense of humor 18 82 0 0 0 0 .150 280 281 Ninety per cent of the faculty group held the opinion that the psychologist absolutely must not accept fees for services from individuals who are entitled to his services through an agency or institution. Selection of categories in the opposite direction of opinion accounted for the high intraposition consensus among the faculty group in regard to the attribute of the psychologist having a sense of humor. There was agreement among the faculty group about the possession by the school psychologist of a doctor’s degree in Education. Eighty-two per cent of the faculty responses to this item were located in the ’’ may or may not" section of the instrument. It seems obvious from the above data that the faculty members are not much concerned about the sex or the age of school psychologists. This group also agrees that it is not necessary for the school psychologist to hold the doctor’s degree in Education. The faculty members seem to feel strongly that the school psychologist should safeguard professional con fidences and give credit for the contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. There is 282 a good deal of agreement among this group that the school psychologist should possess a sense of humor. The faculty members also indicated that they feel very strongly that the school psychologist should not accept fees for services from individuals who are entitled to his services through an institution or agency. Items of low intraposition consensus.--The items for which there was low intraposition agreement are given in Table 39. Two of the items from the table for which there was low intraposition consensus among the faculty members were, *'is personally neat,” and "is personally well groomed." The faculty members did not agree that the school psychologist should have had experience as a classroom teacher. Fifty-nine per cent of the faculty members held affirmative opinions about this attribute, but 41 per cent of the group selected the "may or may not" category for the item. Not all faculty members held the opinion that a school psychologist should be even tempered or in good health. There was low intraposition consensus among the faculty for these attributes. There was also some TABLE 39 LOW INTRAPOSITION CONSENSUS ITEMS FROM THE ATTRIBUTES INSTRUMENT FOR THE FACULTY GROUP Item Absolutely t Must (w Preferably H Should 2 § rt May or o May Not % Should Not M i Absolutely *3 Must Not § 09 ( D No Answer | Variance Score Has had experience as a classroom teacher 15 44 41 0 0 0 .488 Is personally neat 11 63 22 4 0 0 .447 Is able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds 30 59 11 0 0 0 .373 Is personally well groomed 7 74 15 4 0 0 .348 Holds the (Ed.D.) Doctor of Education degree 4 19 70 4 0 3 .331 Is even tempered 18 67 15 0 0 0 .331 Is in good health 22 67 11 0 0 0 .320 Holds the doctor's degree in Psychology, including Educational Psychology 4 52 44 0 0 0 .315 Holds the (Ph.D.) Doctor of Philosophy degree 4 33 63 0 0 0 .315 284 difference of opinion among this group about the ability of the school psychologist to establish a confident relation ship with individuals and groups of all kinds. Possession of the Ph.D. degree was an attribute for which there was low intraposition consensus among faculty members. Their responses were found in the affirmative find the "may or may not" sections of the instrument. Faculty members located their opinions in the same sections for the item about the school psychologist holding the doctor's degree in Psychology. There was almost no negative response to the state ments from the attributes instrument that were placed in the low attributes category according to the variance score criteria. Even though the items had the lowest consensus scores for the statements in the attributes instrument most faculty members held affirmative or permissive opinions about the items. Summary The opinions of the role definers were analyzed to determine intraposition consensus. Intraposition consensus was defined as the degree of agreement among a group of 285 role definers for statements about school psychologists' participations, performances, and attributes. Intraposition consensus was conducted by means of the use of variance scores. Variance scores are a calcula tion of the deviation of scores about the mean of a dis tribution of scores. Variance scores were obtained for a distribution of responses of the role definers to state ments about school psychologists' participations, per formances, and attributes. The resulting scores were ranked from high to low according to numerical value. Twenty-seven per cent of the items were said to have high consensus and 27 per cent low consensus according to numerical value by role definer group. Intraposition consensus was determined for superin tendents, school psychologists, and university or college faculty members. For the items about school psychologists* participations there was no particular pattern in the re sponses of the three groups. However, for statements about school psychologists' performances there seemed to be agreement among the members of each of the groups of role definers that the school psychologist should conduct diag nostic studies of individual children. There was low 286 intraposition consensus about other roles of the school psychologist, such as therapy in the school and work with the group testing program, among the individuals in each of the three role definer groups. There seemed to be a similar pattern of responses among the separate groups of role definers for items about school psychologists* attributes. The members of all of the groups of role definers appeared to agree that the age or the sex of the school psychologist was not important to his professional role. CHAPTER VII THE IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMANCES OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS In order to study the role of the school psycholo gist adequately, two dimensions needed to be considered. First of all it was necessary to evaluate the opinions of the major role definers in relation to whether they held affirmative, negative, or permissive opinions about any particular item of behavior of school psychologists. Thus it could be determined if role definers held the opinion that school psychologists should or should not perform certain tasks as part of their professional duties. This aspect of the study was accomplished by use of the role expectation instrument entitled, "Expectations for the School Psychologist's Performances." The study could have been terminated at this point. However, if this had been done, no information would have been available about the hierarchy of importance that role definers attached to the specific performances of 287 288 the school psychologist. The assumption might be made that all of the items of professional behavior were of equal im portance to all of the role definers. A critical aspect of the study, it would appear, would be to ascertain the levels of importance the role definers ascribed to the job performances of school psy chologists. The role that psychologists perform might be dependent upon this hierarchy of importance of duties. Limitations of time, staff, finances, or even personal in terest might mean that choices between appropriate tasks would be made. For example, both the superintendent and the psychologist in a school district might agree that the psychologist should make diagnostic studies of individual children and work with the group testing program. If the case study load were heavy for the psychologist the superintendent might assign the responsibility for the group testing program to a building principal for his supervision. This assignment of duties would be made be cause he felt it was more important that the school psy chologist make diagnostic studies despite his agreement that the psychologist should be responsible for the group testing program. 289 A section of the opinionaire was set aside to gather data about the role definers* choices of jobs for the school psychologist. The ninety-four items from the performances role expectations instrument were categorized according to ten major headings. This categorizing was done because it did not seem likely that the participants in the study would be able or want to rank all of the ninety-four items of behavior. Because the categories are rather broad it was possible that some ambiguity might have resulted. However, all ninety-four statements from the participations instrument could be placed in the ten cate gories . The ten major headings of performances developed for this section of the opinionaire were labeled: diag nostic studies, follow-up studies, special placements for children, conferences with pupils and parents, consultant to administrators, consultant to teachers, group testing program, curriculum development, community services, and research. A short paragraph of instructions was given the respondents. These instructions were: "Please indicate how important you feel these performances are by ranking them in order of importance from one to ten. Do not leave out any functions. Write the letter of the performance oppo site the number.” To minimize confusion number one was also labeled most important and number ten was labeled least important. After the opinionaires were returned by the re spondents their responses were tabulated. The responses of each group of role definers were tallied by rank order num ber. In succeeding sections of the chapter the responses of the role definers are presented. Separate sections are devoted to each of the role definer groups. The way that superintendents ranked the items is given first. The psychologists’ ranking is offered next and finally the responses of the faculty members are presented. The Performances as Ranked by Superintendents The responses of the superintendents to each of the major headings were tallied according to order of rank from one to ten. The results of this tally are shown in Table 40. The category for which there was the most agreement TABLE 40 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST’S PERFORMANCES AS RANKED BY THE SUPERINTENDENTS Number of Superintendents' Responses Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Diagnostic Studies 107 29 8 9 11 4 3 2 1 0 Follow-up of Studies 0 42 21 27 18 38 9 9 4 2 Special Placements for Children 28 36 51 21 16 9 8 3 3 0 Conferences with Pupils and Parents 7 29 36 38 31 19 5 4 2 0 Consultant to Administrators 11 14 16 25 36 34 16 12 4 4 Consultant to Teachers 12 15 25 35 33 32 15 1 4 0 Group Testing Program 3 6 9 9 15 18 50 22 25 13 Curriculum Development 2 2 3 3 1 4 21 44 54 39 Community Services 0 0 0 2 0 1 14 26 41 87 Research 3 0 3 3 10 11 31 48 34 26 No Response to the Rank 5 5 6 6 7 8 6 7 6 7 291 292 among the superintendents was diagnostic studies. Sixty per cent of the superintendents ranked diagnostic studies as the most important performance of school psychologists. At the other extreme of importance was the ranking for the item, community services. Slightly less than half of the superintendents ranked these performances as least important. There was no great agreement among superintendents about the rank order of importance of the remaining eight categories of professional behavior of school psycholo gists. For each of the major headings there were several levels of importance selected by a similar number of super intendents. Two different levels of importance were chosen by a comparable number of superintendents for the category about follow-up studies. Twenty-four per cent of the superintendents ranked follow-up studies as number two in importance while 21 per cent of this group ranked these performances as number six. Special placements of children were performances that were ranked third by 29 per cent of the superintend ents. Twenty per cent of this group placed special 293 placements third in importance. For the category, conferences with pupils and par ents, 21 per cent of the superintendents selected the fourth rank. Twenty per cent of the superintendents chose the third rank for this item. Consultant to administrators was a category that was placed fifth and sixth by about one-fifth of the super intendents. Twenty per cent of their responses were found in the fifth rank and 19 per cent in the sixth. A comparable number of the responses of superin tendents to the statement about school psychologists serving as consultants to teachers were located in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rank. The percentages of response to these three levels of importance for this category were 20 per cent, 19 per cent, and 18 per cent, respectively. The largest number of responses to the category that dealt with the group testing program fell in the seventh rank. Twenty-eight per cent of the superintendents selected this rank for the item. Over half of the superintendents' responses to the category that involved curriculum development performances were found in the eighth and ninth ranks. Twenty-five 294 per cent of the total were in the eighth rank and 30 per cent in the ninth rank. Research activities of school psychologists were performances that superintendents also placed in the eighth and ninth ranks of importance. The Performances as Ranked by the Psychologists The psychologist group of role definers were also requested to rank the major categories of school psycholo gists* performances from one to ten. The number of re sponses of this group to all ten ranks is shown in Table 41. A majority of the psychologists ranked diagnostic studies as the most important job of the school psycholo gist. Sixty-one per cent of the psychologists ranked this performance in the number one category. A similar number of psychologists selected two categories of performances as least important. Thirty-two per cent of this group placed curriculum development as number ten in importance. Thirty-three per cent of the psychologists* responses were found in the tenth rank for the heading about community services. The psychologists ranked special placements for 4 TABLE 41 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERFORMANCES AS RANKED BY THE PSYCHOLOGISTS Number of Psychologists' Responses Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Diagnostic Studies 218 42 36 26 13 8 4 0 0 1 Follow-up of Studies 1 42 36 54 55 75 43 23 10 8 Special Placements for Children 26 78 65 61 54 37 16 9 3 0 Conferences with Pupils and Parents 14 74 101 76 43 26 7 4 1 0 Consultant to Administrators 31 39 41 45 67 76 25 13 6 3 Consultant to Teachers 53 64 52 57 72 33 12 3 0 1 Group Testing Program 1 1 5 10 15 25 72 87 64 64 Curriculum Development 0 2 2 9 6 13 40 63 99 114 Community Services 0 2 0 1 5 15 38 60 107 118 Research 4 4 10 8 18 39 89 84 56 36 No Response to the Rank 6 6 6 7 6 7 8 8 8 9 - 295 296 children as second, third, and fourth. The percentages of response to these three ranks for this category were 22 per cent for the second rank, 18 per cent for the third rank, and 17 per cent for the fourth rank. For the statement about follow-up studies psy chologists' responses were found in categories from two to ten. The largest number of responses were in the second and sixth levels of importance. A large group of psychologists placed the category about conferences with pupils and parents in the second, third, and fourth ranks. Over 70 per cent of the total selections of psychologists were found in these three levels of importance. Consultant to administrators was a major heading that was ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth by more than half of the psychologists. Of the total response 13 per cent were in the fourth rank, 19 per cent in the fifth rank, and 22 per cent in the sixth level of importance. There was little agreement among the psychologists about the importance of their serving as consultants to teachers. Eighty-four per cent of the responses of this group of role definers were almost evenly distributed in 297 the ranks from the first to fifth level of importance. Four-fifths of the psychologists ranked the per formances involving the group testing program low in im portance. About one-fifth of the total responses were located in each of the ranks seventh to tenth in import ance. The Performances as Ranked by Faculty Members The faculty members participated in this aspect of the study by ranking the ten major categories about the performances of school psychologists in order from the most to the least important. Their responses were tallied by heading and by rank order. The distribution of the re sponses of this group of role definers is presented in Table 42. Diagnostic studies were ranked as most important by over half of the faculty members. Fifty-two per cent of this group placed this item in the number one rank. One- third of the faculty members' group placed the category about the school psychologist serving as a consultant to teachers in this same rank of greatest importance. Follow-up studies was a category that was placed TABLE 42 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERFORMANCES AS RANKED BY THE FACULTY MEMBERS Number of Faculty Members' Responses Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Diagnostic Studies 14 3 3 3 2 0 1 0 0 0 Follow-up of Studies 0 2 2 3 6 7 2 2 1 1 Special Placements for Children 1 6 3 6 5 3 0 1 1 0 Conferences with Pupils and Parents 1 7 6 6 4 0 0 0 1 0 Consultant to Administrators 1 5 4 2 3 4 4 2 0 1 Consultant to Teachers 9 3 6 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 Group Testing Program 0 0 1 1 1 6 7 5 4 2 Curriculum Development 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 * 6 9 9 Community Services 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 9 10 Research 0 0 1 2 1 4 8 6 1 3 No Response to the Rank 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 N9 VO 00 299 in the middle ranks of importance by nearly half of the faculty members. Twenty-two per cent of their responses were found in the fifth rank and 26 per cent in the sixth level of importance. There were differences in agreement among the faculty members about the statement concerning special placements for children. Twenty-two per cent of the group picked the second rank for this item. Exactly the same number of faculty members placed their responses in the fourth rank. Nineteen per cent of the group chose the fifth rank for this category. Almost three-fourths of the faculty members* re sponses were located in the top four ranks of importance for the item regarding conferences with pupils and parents. Twenty-two per cent of the total responses of this group of role definers were found in both the fourth and third ranks. The second rank contained 26 per cent of the re sponses while the remainder were placed in the first rank by the faculty members. The school psychologist serving as a consultant to administrators was a category for which there was little agreement among the faculty members as to its importance. 300 Comparable numbers of responses to this item were located in the second through eighth ranks of importance. Approximately nine-tenths of the faculty members placed their selections in the lowest half of the ranks of importance for the performances relating to the group test- ing program. Eighty-nine per cent of the responses of faculty members were located in the sixth to tenth levels of importance. The majority of faculty members placed the per formances involving curriculum development and community services low in importance. About 90 per cent of the re sponses of the group to both categories were found in the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels of importance. Faculty members seemed to attach somewhat more im portance to research activities of school psychologists. Over half of the faculty group selected the seventh and eighth ranks of importance for this category. Summary In this section of the chapter a summary is made of the data gathered about role definers* opinions as to the relative importance of the performances of school 301 psychologists. A comparison is made of the responses of school superintendents, school psychologists, and college or university faculty members. Careful consideration of these data indicates that there was a good deal of agreement among all three groups of role definers as to the relative importance of the per formances of school psychologists. About the same number of responses were located in the levels of importance by major category for all of the three groups of role de finers. The frequency distributions for the superintend ents, psychologists, and faculty members evidenced a dis tinct similarity for the category about the school psy chologist conducting individual diagnostic studies. Most of the members of each group of role definers ranked these tasks high in importance. The three groups seemed to be of the opinion that the tasks of the school psychologist involving curriculum development were not too important. This agreement was also evident in the case of the school psychologist per forming community services. Research performances of school psychologists were 302 also placed somewhat low In Importance by the three groups of role definers. However, they were considered more im portant than curriculum development and community service. There seemed to be a rather wide range of opinion among the three groups about the importance of the follow- up study. A slight tendency to favor the upper half of the levels of importance may be noted. The superintendents, psychologists, and faculty members seemed to rank special placements of children high in relative importance. Conferences with pupils and par ents also appeared to be thought of as having high import ance. The superintendents and psychologists seemed to agree that serving as a consultant to administrators was a performance that had middle levels of importance. The faculty members evidenced a wide range of opinion about this task. The superintendents tended to be of the opinion that the psychologist serving as a consultant to teachers was of middle importance. The psychologists and faculty members seemed to be more in favor of considering this task of higher importance. 303 None of the three groups of role definers attached other than the lowest levels of importance to the tasks involving the group testing program. This fact seems some what illogical in light of the references in the literature about the school psychologist's responsibilities for the group testing program. When these data are ranked from high to low accord ing to the frequency of response of the three groups of role definers, the following list is obtained: 1. Diagnostic Studies 2. Conferences with Pupils and Parents 3. Special Placements for Children 4. Consultant to Teachers 5. Consultant to Administrators 6. Follow-up of Studies 7. Group Testing Program 8. Research 9. Curriculum Development 10. Conanunity Resources If these data can be accepted as accurately repre senting the opinions of the role definers, there is much agreement among them about the importance of the 304 performances of the school psychologist. Apparently these three groups are quite agreed as to the priorities that should be placed on the duties of the school psychologist. CHAPTER VIII i THE FREQUENCY OF PERFORMANCES OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS One of the major concerns of the study in analyzing the role of the school psychologist was the consideration of the performances of the school psychologist while on the job. The expectations that the three groups of role de finers held for school psychologists' performances were considered. The relative importance that the role definers held for this professional behavior was determined. All of these data were gathered in an attempt to study the role of the school psychologist as this role is envisioned by school superintendents, school psychologists, and college or university faculty members. The study may be said to have importance because of an assumption that expectations of role definers regarding a position in society may affect the behavior of the in cumbents of that position. Thus it was an assumption that the role expectations that superintendents, psychologists, 305 306 and faculty members hold for school psychologists would be largely influential in determining the professional be havior of this group of professional workers. It was not possible within the scope of this par ticular study to consider completely the actual job per formances of school psychologists. However, it was felt that some consideration should be given to an evaluation of the position of the school psychologist in regard to the duties as they existed at the time of the study. This assessment made it possible to make a comparison of the role expectations and the resultant duties as the incum bents of the school psychologist position were practicing them. Thus the assumption about the relationship of role expectations to actual practices could be analyzed. Data about the existing professional practices of school psychologists were gathered by means of the opinion aire. One section of the opinionaire was devoted to this task. The following statement was presented to the par ticipants: "If you are a school psychologist place a check in the appropriate column below indicating the relative frequency with which you perform the specific functions that are listed." 307 The ten major headings of the school psychologist's performances previously used in the study were used again in this part of the investigation. In this manner a com parison could be made between the levels of importance that role definers ascribed to and the actual performance of school psychologists for the following performances: diag nostic studies, follow-up studies, special placements for children, conferences with pupils and parents, consultant to administrators, consultant to teachers, group testing program, curriculum development, community services, and research. The respondents were given four levels of frequency to choose from for each of the performance categories. The frequencies were as follows: very often, fairly often, occasionally, and never. After the opinionaires were received from the par ticipants the number of responses to each category were tabulated. Percentages of total response were calculated by frequency category and by performance heading. In succeeding sections of this chapter each fre quency category is considered in relation to the ten major areas of performances of school psychologists. 308 Exact percentages of response to each part of this section of the opinionaire are presented in Table 43. Category: Very Often The highest percentage of response of the role de finers to this frequency section was given for the item about diagnostic studies. Sixty-eight per cent of the school psychologists indicated that they performed diag nostic studies very often. Over half of the psychologists also indicated that they held conferences with pupils and parents very often. A comparable percentage of the psychologists checked the same frequency classification in regard to their serving as a consultant to teachers. About half of the school psychologists chose the ’ 'very often” category for the item about special placements of children and the item about serving as a consultant to administrators. Forty-eight per cent of the psychologists checked "very often" for the former statement and 46 per cent for the latter heading. Only about one-fifth of the psychologists indicated that they did follow-up studies very often or worked with TABLE 43 DISTRIBUTION OF FREQUENCY OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST * S ACTUAL PERFORMANCES Item Per cent of Total Response Very Often Fairly Often Occasionally Never No Response Diagnostic Studies 68 13 6 1 12 Follow-up of Studies 21 39 26 2 12 Special Placements for Children 48 27 11 1 13 Conferences with Pupils and Parents 61 22 4 1 12 Consultant to Administrators 46 30 12 1 11 Consultant to Teachers 55 26 7 1 11 Group Testing Program 19 14 34 21 12 Curriculum Development 4 14 45 26 11 Community Services 11 24 49 4 12 Research 7 17 53 11 12 309 310 the group testing program. Twenty-one per cent of the group selected this high frequency section of the opinion aire for follow-up studies. A comparable 19 per cent of the psychologists indicated that they participated in group testing programs very often. The remaining three categories of curriculum de velopment, community services, and research were checked by approximately 10 per cent or less of the psychologists in the ’ ’very often" section of the opinionaire. The least number of responses of the three groups of performances were found in the curriculum development category. It should also be noted that only 7 per cent of the total re spondents selected the "very often" category for the item about research. Category: Fairly Often The largest percentage of responses to the "fairly often" section of the opinionaire by psychologists was found for the items dealing with follow-up studies and serving as a consultant to administrators. About one-third of the psychologists checked these two items as perform ances that they participated in fairly often. 311 There were four items that nearly one-fourth of the psychologists indicated they performed fairly often. Twenty-seven per cent of the group placed the item about special placements in the "fairly often" section of the opinionaire. Conferencing with pupils and parents was performed fairly often by 22 per cent of the respondents. Psychologists served as consultants to teachers and per formed community services fairly often by 26 per cent and 24 per cent of the psychologists, respectively. The items about diagnostic studies, group testing program, curriculum development, and research had the lowest percentage of responses. Less than one-fifth of the school psychologists said that they performed these serv ices fairly often. Category: Occas ionallv The responses marked "occasionally" were those that would be expected. In this category the reverse order of frequency to the section "very often" prevailed. The items with high frequency of response in the "very often" section had a low number of responses to the present classifica tion. 312 About one-half of the group checked that they occasionally performed community services, worked with cur riculum development, or conducted research. These three items were performed very often by only one-tenth or less of the participants. The group testing program was an item that was fourth from the highest in order of frequency in the * ' occa sionally" classification. In the section "very often" the same item ranked fourth from the lowest in order of fre quency of performance by school psychologists. Reverse rank also persisted for the item about follow-up studies. In the "occasionally" section of the opinionaire the item about follow-up studies ranked sixth from the bottom. For the category "very often" the same item was located sixth from the top rank. The remaining five items were diagnostic studies, special placements, conferences with pupils and parents, consultant to administrators, and consultant to teachers. About one-tenth or less of the psychologists selected the "occasionally" classification for these five items. The same five items ranked highest in frequency in the category "very often" of the opinionaire. 313 Category; Never The percentage of response to the Items about school psychologists* performances in the category "never" were very small. The two items for which there was the greatest percentage of response by school psychologists were those concerned with the group testing program and curriculum development. Twenty-six per cent of the group said that they never participated in curriculum develop ment. A similar percentage indicated that they never worked wfth the group testing program. Eleven per cent of the psychologists said that they never did research. The percentage of response to the other seven items about school psychologists* performances was very small. The frequency of response ranged from 1 to 4 per cent of the total group of school psychologists. Summary Careful consideration of these data indicates that the ten major headings of school psychologists* perform ances can be ranked according to the frequency with which they were being performed by school psychologists at the time the study took place. After the responses of school 314 psychologists were analyzed the headings were ranked from high to low frequency of occurrence as follows: 1. Diagnostic Studies 2. Conferences with Pupil and Parents 3. Special Placements for Children 4. Consultant to Teachers 5. Consultant to Administrators 6. Follow-up of Studies 7. Community Services 8. Research 9. Group Testing Program 10. Curriculum Development A comparison can be made between the data gathered here and that obtained about the relative importance that the superintendents, psychologists, and faculty members attached to the performances of school psychologists. In this manner it was possible to determine if the school psy chologists were actually performing the duties of their office in relation to the importance that they and the other role definers attached to those duties. For example, as was presented in Chapter VII, the role definers ranked diagnostic studies as the most 315 important performances of school psychologists. As the data are shown here, psychologists are actually performing diagnostic studies most frequently. Low importance was attached to the tasks of the school psychologist involving curriculum development and community services. As is evident from these data, school psychologists are not performing these tasks with great frequency. Research and group testing programs were items that were checked as low in importance by the role de finers. Again they occur infrequently in the performances of school psychologists as shown by the way that they marked the opinionaire. At the other end of the scale the role definers ranked conferences with pupils and parents and special placements for children high in relative importance. These professional duties were actually accomplished with great frequency by school psychologists. The other items about the performances of school psychologists were considered to be of middle value in relation to a hierarchy of importance by the superintend ents, psychologists, and faculty members. These duties were located in the middle ranks of frequency of actual 316 i performances of school psychologists. These data seem to support the assumption that school psychologists are actually performing those duties to which they attach the most importance. The superin tendents' and faculty members' responses to the section of the opinionaire about the ranking of importance of the per formances of school psychologists indicated that they also concur in the frequency of performance of school psycholo gists * duties as they were being conducted at the time of the study. CHAPTER IX SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter is organized into three sections. In the first part of the chapter a review is made of the prob lem and the methods used. In the second section of the chapter the findings of the analysis of the role of the school psychologist in California are summarized. Finally, conclusions and recommendations of the study are presented. Review of the Problem and Methods Used The study was concerned with the role of the school * V . psychologist employed by school districts in the State of California. It was the purpose of the study to seek answers to the following questions: 1. What is the degree of consensus among school psychologists on the expectations they hold for incumbents of their position? 2. What is the degree of consensus among school 317 superintendents on the expectations they hold for the position of the school psychologist? What is the degree of consensus among college and university faculty members on the expecta tions they hold for the position of school psychologist? Is there agreement or disagreement between superintendents and psychologists on each of the items in the three role definition instru ments? Is there agreement or disagreement between psy chologists and college or university faculty members on each of the items in the three role definition instruments? Is there agreement or disagreement between superintendents and college or university faculty members on each of the items in the three role definition instruments? What is the degree of importance that psycholo- gists attach to the performances of incumbents of their position? What is the degree of importance that school 319 superintendents attach to the performances of school psychologists? 9. What is the degree of importance that college or university faculty members attach to the performances of school psychologists? 10. What is the relative frequency with which school psychologists perform specific functions of their position? 11. Are school psychologists performing the func tions in the order of importance that superin tendents, faculty members, and psychologists attach to them? The data for the study were gathered by means of an opinionaire. The opinionaire was mailed to school superin tendents, school psychologists, and college or university faculty members throughout the State of California. The participants were requested to respond to items from the opinionaire that dealt with school psychologists' par ticipations, attributes, and performances. Other sections of the opinionaire provided a means for obtaining data about the participants' opinions in regard to the relative importance of the performances of school psychologists and 320 the frequency with which school psychologists perform their! several duties. A statistical analysis was made in order to inter pret the data obtained by use of the opinionaire. The data were tabulated and the statistical procedures accomplished by utilizing International Business Machine equipment. Comparisons were made between the responses of the separate role definer groups by using the KolmogorovSmirnov Two- Sample Test. Comparisons were made among the members of the role definers by considering variance scores. Summary of the Findings The findings of the study were obtained by gather ing data about the opinions of school superintendents, school psychologists, and college and university faculty members in regard to the role of the school psychologist in California. The findings are as follows: 1. Question number one was about the degree of consensus among school psychologists on the expectations they hold for incumbents of their position. There was high consensus among school psychologists that they should par ticipate in activities that further their professional 321 competencies. There was low intraposition consensus among the psychologists about the necessity of holding member ships in psychological or educational organizations or participating in local community organizations. All of the items about school psychologists' per formances that had high intraposition consensus among the school psychologists' group were affirmative opinions. The school psychologists held the opinions that they should: (1) make diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the gifted, the mentally handicapped, the emo tionally disturbed, the socially maladjusted, and the edu cationally retarded; (2) obtain information from the child, teachers, parents, and the school nurse; (3) use cumulative records and administer intelligence tests as part of the individual study; (4) follow-up the study by means of con ferences with teachers, administrators, and parents; (5) re-assess and re-evaluate the study in light of the information gained in the follow-up; (6) make recommenda tions for the placement of children in special programs; (7) confer with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems; (8) be concerned with methods for providing optimum conditions for learning; (9) consult with teachers 322 and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil I adjustment; (10) advise and collaborate with school per sonnel offering remedial instruction; and (11) maintain regular communications with other professional persons and other agencies outside the school. Among school psychologists there was low intraposi tion consensus about: (1) carrying on therapy for indi vidual children, for groups of children, for parents, and for groups of parents; (2) providing free play situations in which the children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emotional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of behavior for individuals; (3) making diagnostic studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped; (4) using individual achievement tests, projective techniques, and personality question naires; (5) preparing calendars and schedules for the group testing program, training teachers in test administration and test interpretation, supervising group test adminis tration, and presenting the results of the group tests to the school staff and to the school board; (6) serving as a resource person to administrators in matters of promotion and selection of other staff members; (7) consulting with 323 other staff members on their personal problems even when requested to do so; (8) being responsible for the in- service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records and anecdotal records; (9) con sulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for educational activities; (10) partici pating in curriculum planning for regular classes; (11) availability of the school psychologist to members of the school board, when desired, to discuss psychological im plications of school policies; (12) interpreting the school and its programs to the public; and (13) identifying sound and significant research. The school psychologists had affirmative agreement about some of the attributes of incumbents of their posi tion. They held the opinion that school psychologists should safeguard professional confidences and professional materials and tests. The psychologists also agreed that the effectiveness of the school psychologists was not dependent upon age or sex of the individual. The school psychologists did not agree that it was necessary for them to be personally attractive, even tem pered, secure, a good citizen who serves society and 324 able to establish confident relationships with individuals and groups of all kinds. There was low agreement among the psychologists about their having had experience as a class room teacher or in a psychological or psychiatric clinic. 2. The second question that an answer was sought for in the study was about the degree of consensus among school superintendents on the expectations they hold for the position of school psychologist. There was agreement among the superintendents that the school psychologist should visit other schools and agencies and attend profes sional meetings of psychological groups. The superintend ents were agreed that it was not important for the school psychologist to write articles for publication. There was low intraposition consensus among super intendents about school psychologists belonging to pro fessional psychological and educational organizations or attending meetings of the educational groups. Many of the items about school psychologists' per formances that had high intraposition consensus among school superintendents dealt with the activities of the school psychologist in conducting diagnostic studies of individual children. The superintendents were agreed that 325 the school psychologist should conduct individual study to identify children with problems of various kinds. The superintendents also had high agreement that the school psychologist should: (1) participate in and serve as a speaker to community organizations; (2) maintain regular communications with other professional persons and other community agencies; and (3) participate in curriculum planning for special classes. There was little agreement among the superintend ents about the school psychologists carrying on therapy for individual children, groups of children, individual par ents, or groups of parents. There was also low agreement among the superintendents about the school psychologist providing free play situations in which children may be helped to gain insight into and control over their emo tional reactions and to develop acceptable modes of be havior for individual children and for groups of children. Superintendents did not agree upon the role of the school psychologist in the group testing program of the school. This group also had low intraposition consensus about the school psychologist consulting with the school board both to present the results of the group test program 326 and to discuss psychological implications of school poli- cies. Two items for which there was little agreement among the superintendents dealt with the school psychologist presenting to the administration the evidence of the needs of the school district for regular programs and serving them as resource persons in matters of promotion of other staff members. Finally, the superintendents did not agree that the school psychologist should consult, on request, with teachers or other school employees about their per sonal problems. The superintendents* responses to the attributes instrument indicate that they held the opinions that the age or whether a school psychologist is a man or woman are attributes that are not important. They also did not consider the possession of the doctor's degree to be of great importance. The superintendents did agree very strongly that the school psychologist should safeguard professional confidences. 3. Another question that an answer was sought for in the study dealt with the degree of consensus among col lege or university faculty members on the expectations they hold for the position of school psychologist. There was 327 high agreement among the faculty members that the school psychologist should maintain close working relationships with other professional groups. The faculty members also had high consensus that the school psychologist preferably should hold membership in the American Personnel and Guid ance Association. The faculty members agreed that the school psychologist may or may not write articles for pro fessional journals. There was not agreement among the faculty members that the school psychologist should participate in Parent Teachers Association meetings, service clubs, women1s organizations, workshop sessions, and conventions of re gional and state organizations or attend local, regional, state, and national educational organizations. The faculty members were agreed that the school psychologist should: (1) make diagnostic studies of indi vidual children to identify the emotionally disturbed, the socially maladjusted, the gifted, and the mentally handi capped; (2) obtain information from the child, teachers, social workers, medical doctors, school nurse, and other agency representatives; (3) summarize and interpret the findings of an individual study; (4) follow up the 328 individual study by means of conferences with parents and teachers; (5) develop plans and make recommendations for helping the child; (6) work with the school staff by con ferring with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems; (7) consult with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment; (8) main tain regular communications with other professional persons and community agencies; and (9) participate in community health organizations and be available as a speaker to com munity organizations. There was not agreement among the faculty members that the school psychologist should: (1) work with the group testing program of the school by preparing calendars and schedules, supervising group test administration, ad ministering group tests, making a special analysis of the test results in relation to the local program, and con sulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing the testing program; (2) make individual studies of chil dren to identify the physically handicapped; (3) use achievement tests on an individual basis or projective techniques and personality questionnaires; (4) make ob servations of the child in the classroom during the course of an individual study; (5) conduct therapy in the school for individual children, groups of children, or groups of parents; (6) participate in in-service training programs for administrators; (7) be responsible for the in-service training of staff members in the development and use of cumulative records and home-school reports; (8) confer with teachers who need help in coping with pupil problems; (9) serve as a resource person to administrators on tech niques of recruitment, and the selection and promotion of other staff members; (10) consult with teachers and ad ministrators on methods of teaching for educational activi ties; (11) consult on request with teachers or other em ployees on their personal problems; (12) offer leadership in the nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services; and (13) interpret the school and its programs to the public. The faculty members were agreed that the sex or age of the school psychologist was not an important attribute. They also agreed that it is not necessary for the school psychologist to hold the doctor*s degree in Education. The faculty members agreed strongly that the school psycholo gist should: (1) safeguard professional confidences; 330 (2) give credit for the contributions of others when sub mitting reports or publishing papers; '(3) possess a sense of humor; and (4) not accept fees for services from indi viduals who are entitled to his services through an insti tution or agency. The faculty members did not agree that school psychologists necessarily should: (1) be personally neat and well groomed; (2) have had experience as a classroom teacher; (3) be even tempered or in good health; (4) be able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds; and (5) possess the Ph.D. degree or hold the doctor*s degree in Psychology. 4. The fourth question to be answered in the study was about the agreement or disagreement between superin tendents and school psychologists on each of the items in the three role definition instruments. There were several items from the instruments for which there was a statisti cally significant difference according to the Kolmogorov- Smimov criteria. Generally the significant differences between the school superintendents and school psychologists were the result of one group holding more intense opinions about 331 the statement than the other group. There were no items for which there was an opposite direction of opinion be tween the two groups although the statement about the school psychologist carrying on therapy was a tendency for the superintendents* group to be more strongly negative than the psychologists' group. The school psychologists held more affirmative opinions about membership in psychological organizations while the superintendents conversely were more strongly in favor of the school psychologist holding membership in edu cational organizations. There were a number of items for which the sig nificant differences were the result of more members of the superintendents' group holding more intense affirmative opinions than members of the psychologist group. For example, superintendents were more in favor of the school psychologist doing the following things than were the school psychologists: (1) obtain information from the school nurse; (2) use interest inventories when conducting an individual study of a child; (3) consulting with the school staff for the purpose of developing group testing programs or recommending specific tests or making a special 332 analysis of the test results in relation to the local pro gram; (4) conference with attendance personnel; and (5) use interest inventories. More members of the psychologist group of role de finers had stronger affirmative opinions about the follow ing performances than did the superintendents, thus statistically significant differences obtained: (1) conduct studies of individual children to identify the physically handicapped and maladjusted child; (2) obtain information from the child; (3) use intelligence tests in an individual study; (4) summarize and interpret the findings of an indi vidual study; (5) conferencing with teachers; (6) inter viewing, discussing, and counseling with pupils and parents; (7) maintain communications with community agen cies; (8) be available to members of a school board, when desired, to discuss psychological implications of school policies; (9) confer with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems; (10) participate in the in- service training programs for administrators, teachers, and other school personnel; (11) organize and participate in community health and mental health organizations; (12) identify sound and significant research; and (13) offer 333 leadership in the nature and process of evaluation as it pertains to special services. There were more negative opinions among school psy chologists than among superintendents for several items about the group testing program. There were significant differences about items dealing with the school psycholo gist preparing calendars and schedules for the group test ing program, supervising test administration and adminis tering group tests. More of the superintendents* group held negative opinions about therapy than did members of the school psychologists' group of role definers. The items of sig nificant difference were concerned with the school psy chologist carrying on therapy for groups of children and groups of parents. The statistically significant differences between the superintendents and psychologists for items from the attributes instrument were the result of intensity of opinion rather than direction of opinion. For each attri bute there was a majority of affirmative opinion for each group of role definers. One exception was the item about the school psychologist holding the Ph.D. degree. Most of 334 the members of both groups held the opinion that the school psychologist may or may not possess this degree. However, there was a tendency for the school psychologists to have the opinion that the degree was desirable. More school psychologists than superintendents also held the opinion that the school psychologist absolutely must give credit to others for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. For all of the other items about school psycholo gists* attributes the statistically significant differences were the result of more members of the superintendents* group holding stronger opinions than the members of the psychologist group. These attributes were: (1) is per sonally neat, (2) is personally attractive, (3) is in good health, (4) has personal vigor, (5) is emotionally mature, (6) is secure, (7) is even tempered, (8) has had experience as a classroom teacher, and (9) is able to establish a con fident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds. 5. The fifth question to be considered in the study was about the agreement or disagreement between psychologists and college or university faculty members 335 on each of the items in the three role definition instru ments. There was one item from the participations instrument for which there was a statistically significant difference between the school psychologists and the faculty members. More faculty members than psychologists held the opinion that the school psychologist should be a member of the American Personnel and Guidance Association. For performances of school psychologists more faculty members than psychologists held negative opinions about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to administrators on technique of recruitment. There were also statistically significant differences between the two groups of role definers for statements about the school psychologist conducting special studies regarding current characteristics or patterns of longitudinal growth and identifying sound and significant research. Most psycholo gists held the opinion that they should do these two types of tasks while many faculty members had the opinion that school psychologists may or may not do them. The one attribute for which there was a significant difference between the faculty members and the school psy chologists dealt with the school psychologist being a good 336 citizen and serving society. The school psychologists held stronger opinions about this attribute than did the faculty members. 6. Question number six dealt with the agreement between superintendents and college or university faculty members on each of the items in the three role definition instruments. More faculty members than superintendents held affirmative opinions about the school psychologist being a member of the American Psychological Association, the Division of School Psychologists of the American Psy chological Association, and the American Personnel and Guidance Association. The faculty members* group had stronger affirmative opinions than did the superintendents about the school psychologist making diagnostic studies of individual chil dren to identify the physically handicapped and interview ing, discussing, and counseling with pupils. The faculty members* group held stronger negative opinions than the superintendents about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to administrators in matters involving promotion of other staff members. There were several items from the attributes 337 instrument that had statistically significant differences between faculty members and superintendents. More superin tendents than faculty members held stronger positive opinions about the school psychologist: (1) being per sonally neat and well groomed, (2) having personal vigor, (3) being even tempered, (4) having a sense of humor, (5) being a good citizen and serving society, (6) being able to establish a confident relationship with individuals and groups of all kinds, and (7) having had experience as a classroom teacher. There were more affirmative opinions among the faculty members than the superintendents for two attributes of school psychologists. There were affirmative opinions among the faculty members for the school psychologist possessing the doctor*s degree and giving credit of con tributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. 7. The seventh question asked in the study con cerned the degree of importance that school psychologists attach to the performances of incumbents of their position. School psychologists ranked diagnostic studies of indi vidual children as the most important of their performances. 338 This group seemed to be o£ the opinion that curriculum development and community services were the least important of their performances. Special placements of children was a duty that school psychologists ranked in the middle levels of importance. Conferences with pupils and parents as well as follow-up studies tended to be ranked in this same middle range of importance. School psychologists seemed to be of the opinion that serving as a consultant to administrators should be ranked in the lower middle ranges of importance. There was least agreement about the school psychologist serving as a resource person to adminis trators. School psychologists ranked tasks of the group testing program low in relative importance. 8. One of the questions to be answered by the study was about the degree of importance that school super intendents attach to the performances of school psycholo gists. The item for which there was the most agreement among the superintendents was about the school psychologist conducting studies of individual children. At the other extreme of importance superintendents ranked the item about community services. Superintendents tended to place several of the 339 performances of school psychologists in the middle ranks of importance. In the upper middle ranks were the items about follow-up studies, special placements for children, and conferences with pupils and parents. In the lower ranks of importance the superintendents placed the items about the school psychologist serving as a consultant to adminis trators and teachers. Statements about the group testing program, cur riculum development, and research activities of school psychologists were placed in the low ranks of importance by school superintendents. 9. Question number nine from the study was about the degree of importance that college of university faculty members attach to the performances of school psychologists. Diagnostic studies of individual children ranked as most important by the faculty members. In the upper middle ranks of importance faculty members placed statements about the school psychologist making special placements for children, conferencing with pupils and parents, and serving as a consultant to administrators and teachers. In the lower middle half of the levels of importance the responses of faculty members were found for items involving the 339 performances of school psychologists in the middle ranks of importance. In the upper middle ranks were the items about follow-up studies, special placements for children, and conferences with pupils and parents. In the lower ranks of importance the superintendents placed the items about the school psychologist serving as a consultant to adminis trators and teachers. Statements about the group testing program, cur riculum development, and research activities of school psychologists were placed in the low ranks of importance by school superintendents. 9. Question number nine from the study was about the degree of importance that college of university faculty members attach to the performances of school psychologists. Diagnostic studies of individual children ranked as most important by the faculty members. In the upper middle ranks of importance faculty members placed statements about the school psychologist making special placements for children, conferencing with pupils and parents, and serving as a consultant to administrators and teachers. In the lower middle half of the levels of importance the responses of faculty members were found for items involving the 340 school psychologist in follow-up studies and the group testing program. Faculty members tended to place in the lowest levels of importance, statements about school psy chologists working in curriculum development, performing community services, and conducting research activities. 10. The tenth question for which an answer was sought dealt with the relative frequency with which school psychologists perform specific functions of their position. It was found that the responses of school psychologists about the frequency of performance of the duties of their office could be ranked from high to low frequency of occur rence as follows: (1) diagnostic studies of individual children, (2) conferences with pupils and parents, (3) spe cial placements for children, (4) consultant to teachers, (5) consultant to administrators, (6) follow-up of studies, (7) community services, (8) research, (9) group testing program, and (10) curriculum development. 11. The final question asked in the study concerned the school psychologists performing the functions in the order of importance that superintendents, faculty members, and school psychologists attach to them. The findings in the study seem to support the assumption that school 341 psychologists are actually performing those duties that school superintendents, school psychologists, and college or university faculty members think they should perform in the order of importance that they attach to those duties. These findings show that there is consensus about many of the participations, performances, and attributes of school psychologists among school superintendents, school psychologists, and faculty members in California. From the findings of the present study it is possible to draw a composite picture of the school psychologist as seen by the groups of role definers. The school superintendent sees the school psycholo gist as a member of the school staff whose primary re sponsibility is to conduct diagnostic studies of individual children. These studies are conducted to identify the mentally handicapped, the emotionally disturbed, the gifted, and the socially maladjusted child. The superin tendent believes that the school psychologist should follow up the diagnostic study by developing plans and recommenda tions for helping the child and communicating those plans to parents and the school staff by means of conferences. According to this view the school psychologist confers with 342 teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems and he obtains information about those problems from the school nurse and the parents. The superintendent believes that the school psy chologist serves the community by participating in health organizations. He makes himself available as a speaker to community organizations. The school psychologist further participates in the community by maintaining regular com munications with other professional persons and community agencies. In the superintendent's picture of the school psy chologist, he works with the school staff to design re search to investigate current problems. The school psychologist also participates in curriculum planning for special classes. The school superintendent has no strong preferences about the attributes of the school psychologist. He be lieves that the school psychologist may be either a man or woman and that no particular age is better than any other. The school psychologist does not necessarily need to hold the doctor's degree in Education according to the super intendent. He does, however, need to safeguard profes sional confidences. 343 The school superintendent sees the school psycholo gist as a person who attends local, regional, state, and national meetings of psychological groups. He also visits other schools and agencies. Finally, the school psycholo gists participate professionally by writing articles for publication in professional journals. A composite verbal picture may also be drawn from the findings of the study of the school psychologist as viewed by the school psychologist himself. The school psy chologist clearly sees himself as the person on the school staff who has the primary responsibility for making diag nostic studies of individual children. These studies are made to identify the mentally handicapped, the emotionally disturbed, the socially maladjusted> the gifted, and the educationally retarded child. In conducting the individual case study, the school psychologist sees himself adminis tering intelligence tests, obtaining information from the child, teachers, parents, the school nurse, and using cumulative records. He summarizes and interprets his find ings in an individual child study. In the school psycholo gist's picture of himself he uses the case conference to develop plans and recommendations for helping the child. 344 Conferences are held with teachers, administrators, and parents. Finally, the school psychologist re-assesses and re-evaluates in the light of this follow-up of the indi vidual studies. The school psychologist believes he has responsi bilities for working with other members of the school staff. He confers with teachers who request help in coping with pupil problems. He makes recommendations for place ment of children in special programs. He also advises and collaborates with school personnel offering remedial instruction. The school psychologists picture of himself includes working with the school staff on providing optimum conditions for learning. He consults with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment. The school psychologist also feels that he should maintain regular communications with other profes sional persons and community agencies. There are no personal characteristics that the school psychologist views as critical to his job. Whether a school psychologist is a man or woman or is of a par ticular age is not considered to be important. He does, however, believe strongly that he should safeguard 345 professional confidences and professional materials and tests. There are several participations that the school psychologist believes are important. He sees himself attending local, regional, state, and national meetings of psychological groups. He thinks he should visit other schools and agencies. The school psychologist also sees himself as a professional person who reads up-to-date pro fessional publications. From the findings of the present study a composite picture of the school psychologist can also be drawn for the college or university faculty members* group of role definers. The faculty members also see the school psy chologist as a professional person who makes diagnostic studies of individual children. These studies are con ducted to identify the emotionally disturbed, the socially maladjusted, the gifted, and the mentally handicapped child. As a part of these studies the faculty members be lieve the school psychologist obtains information from the child, parents, teachers, the school nurse, medical doc tors, and social workers. After the study is completed the school psychologist summarizes and interprets the findings. He then conferences with parents and teachers to develop plans and recommendations for helping the child. Finally, the faculty members view the school psychologist re assessing and re-evaluating in the light of the follow-up of the study. The faculty members see the school psychologist as a person who has responsibilities to other members of the school staff. He confers with teachers who request help with pupil problems as well as consulting with teachers and administrators on matters of teaching method for pupil adjustment and on providing optimum conditions for learn ing. He also advises and collaborates with school person nel offering remedial instruction. The faculty members believe that the school psy chologist maintains regular communications with other professional persons and other community agencies. He also makes himself available as a speaker to community agencies. There are several personal attributes that the faculty members observe in the school psychologist. They see the school psychologist as an individual who safeguards professional confidences and gives credit for contributions of others when submitting reports or publishing papers. 347 The faculty members think the school psychologist should have a sense of humor. The faculty members do not see the school psycholo gist as having obtained a particular chronological age. The fact that the school psychologist is a man instead of a woman is not part of the picture they hold of the school psychologist. Faculty members see the school psychologist par ticipating professionally by becoming a member of the American Personnel and Guidance Association. He also writes articles for publication in professional journals. The faculty members view the school psychologist as a per son who maintains close working relationships with other professional groups. Conclusions and Recommendations The role of the school psychologist that emerges from the findings of the present study is very limited. The school psychologist should participate more fully in the activities of the public school than merely conducting diagnostic studies of individual children. The school psychologist is qualified by training to conduct research 348 into educational methods and materials. As is often done by his counterpart in industry he might well serve as a resource person to school administrators in matters of re cruitment and selection of personnel. In regard to the school psychologist's diagnostic activities, the question can be raised, diagnosis for what purpose? If the school psychologist is to conduct little or no counseling or therapy with children or their parents it seems likely that few changes in behavior will result from diagnostic procedures. It is good that the role definers agreed that the school psychologist should conduct diagnostic studies of children. However, the school psychologist should be free to utilize whatever professional instruments, he is quali fied to use. Denying projective techniques, personality questionnaires, interest inventories and other instruments to the school psychologist might seriously limit his pro fessional capabilities. The group testing program is an important part of the modern school. The school psychologist has the sta tistical and test construction competencies to make a valuable contribution to this aspect of the school program. 349 In view of the present emphasis on group test results the school staff should seek ways of increasing the responsi bilities in this vital area of the school psychologist. There was little agreement among the role definers about the desirable characteristics of school psycholo gists. Logic would seem to suggest that there are some personal attributes that would make a school psychologist more effective professionally. Further study should be accomplished to consider the personal and desirable attri butes of the school psychologist. Many authors and members of professional groups, such as the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association, state that the fully qualified school psychologist has had professional training up to and including the doctorate. In fact the Division of School Psychology recommends that the person working in the school not hold the title of school psychologist unless he also holds the doctor*s degree in Psychology or Educational Psychology. If this is to be accepted as a criterion much needs yet to be done in California. It would also seem that there is much benefit in the school psychologist participating in the activities of 350 professional organizations. However, many role definers in the present study did not agree to this. Work should be done by these organizations to point out their functions in providing for professional growth of their members. The findings of the study suggest that the role of the school psychologist in California has developed in an orderly fashion to its present state. It is well that the role definers from throughout the State of California and from three different types of professional endeavor have come to apparent agreement about many aspects of the school psychologist's performances, attributes, and participa tions. In the future much needs to be done to develop the role of the school psychologist to the point where the maximum benefit to the residents of the State will be derived from the services of the school psychologist. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Books 1. Brighouse, G. “Home and School Work Together for Children,“ California Elementary School Adminis trators 21st Yearbook. 1949. 2. Cutts, Norma E. (ed.) School Psychologists at Mid- Century. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, Inc., 1955. 3. Daniel, Robert, and Loufit, C. M. Professional Prob lems in Psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1953. 4. Gottsegen, M. G., and Gottsegen, G. B. (eds.) Profes sional School Psychology. New York: Grune and Stratton, Inc., I960. 5. 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VI (May, 1955), 123-126. 358 64. MacDonnell, John F. "City-wide Directors of Guid ance, " Personnel Guidance Journal, XXXV (November, 1956), 160-163. 65. Mathews, W. M., and Wineman, D. "The Psychologist and His Role," American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. XXII (January, 1952), 170-176. 66. McDaniel, H. B. "Organization and Administration of Guidance in Elementary and Secondary Schools," Review of Educational Research. XXIV (April, 1954), 109-112. 67. Miller, J. "Program of a Psychologist in a High School," School and Society. XXVI (September, 1927), 367-368. 68. Motz, Annabelle B. "The Role Conception Inventory," American Sociological Review. XVII (August, 1952), 465-471. 69. Mullen, F. A. "Therapy and the School Psychologist," Exceptional Children. XXI (April, 1955), 251-259. 70. Mulrine, C. L. "Psychology Goes to School," American School Board Journal. CX (February, 1945), 29. 71. Myer, L. N. "Problems of the School Psychologist," Education, LXXV (February, 1955), 412-416. 72. Newland, T. Ernest. "Formalized Psychological Services in State Education," American Psychologist, XI (March, 1956), 136-140. 73. Nottingham, Elizabeth V. "Toward an Analysis of the Effects of Two World Wars on the Role and Status of Middle Class Women in the English Speaking World," American Sociological Review, XII (December, 1946), 666-675. 74. Oberholtzer, Kenneth. "The School Psychologist," The School Executive. LVIII (September, 1938), 16-17. 359 75. Ort, R. S. "A Study of Role-Conflicts as Relatad to Class Level,” Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology. XLVII (April, 1952), 425-432. 76. Perkins, K. J. "Consultation Services to Public Schools by a Mental Health Team,” Mental Hygiene. XXXVII (October, 1953), 585-595. 77. Polmantier, P. C. "Titles of School Guidance Workers,” Occupations. XXVIII (March, 1950), 349- 352. 78. Porter, R. B. "School Psychology in Indiana," Teachers College Journal. XXXI (May, 1960), 131-133. 79. Radcliffe, A. H. "Work of the School Psychologist," New Era. XXIV (November, 1943), 167-169. 80. Raferty, G . "I Don’t Mistrust All Psychologists," Clearing House. XXXIV (December, 1959), 211-213. 81. Revie, V. "Johnny and the School Psychologist," California Teachers Association Journal. L (April, 1954), 15. 82. Reynolds, M. C. "Psychologist in Special Education," Minnesota Journal of Education. XL (February, 1960), 22. 83. Roberts, A. D. "Cooperative Personnel Approach for the School Psychologist," Occupations. XXX (May, 1952), 599-600. 84. Rose, A. M. "The Adequacy of Women’s Expectations for Adult Roles," Social Forces. XXX (October, 1951), 69-77. 85. Rosebrook, W. W. "Psychological Service for Schools on a Regional Basis," Journal of Consulting Psy chology, VI (July-August, 1942), 196-200. 86. Sailer, A. "Psychologist in a Small Cooperative Day School," National Elementary Principals. XXXIV (September, 1954), 131-136. 360 87. Salten, D. G., and others. "Public School Psycho logical Services: Recent Growth and Further Potential," Educational Administration and Super vision. XLII (February-March, 1956), 100-107, 162-169. 88. Seashore, H. G. "School Psychologist and Research," Exceptional Children, XXV (December, 1958), 147-150. 89. Shartle, C. L. "Occupations in Psychology," American Psychologist, I (December, 1946), 559-582. 90. Symonds, P. M. "Every School Should Have a Psycholo gist," School and Society, XXXVIII (September, 1933), 321-329. 91. . "The School Psychologist— 1942," Journal of Consulting Psychology, VI (July-August, 1942), 173-176. 92. Tolman, E. C. "A Theoretical Analysis of the Rela tions Between Sociology and Psychology," Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology. XLVII (April, 1952), 291-299. 93. Vernon, P. E. "Psychologist Defended," Times Educa tional Supplement. MMCXXXVII (May 4, 1956), 583. 94. Wallin, J. E. W. "Forum; The 'School Psychologist' in Retrospect," Journal of Consulting Psychology. VI (November-December, 1942), 309-312. 95. Walter, R. "The Functions of a School Psychologist," American Education. XXIX (December, 1925), 167-170. 96. Watson, Godwin, "Psychology in the Emerging Educa tion," Journal of Consulting Psychology, X (January- February, 1946), 57-62. 97. Weiss, Emalyn R., and Wyer, L. N. "Psychological Services in the Rural Schools of Pennsylvania," Exceptional Children. XIX (October, 1952), 15-19. 361 98. Wilkins, W. C. ’ ’Some Effects of 10 Years of Psy chological Service in the Public School System," Psychological Bulletin. XXXVIII (October, 1941), 554. 99. Ypsen, L. N. "The Relationship Between the Psycholo gist and the Teacher," American Journal of Mental Deficiency. L (January, 1946), 419-424. Bulletins and Pamphlets 100. Bower, Eli M. (ed.) The Psychologist in the School. Sacramento, California: Bulletin of the California State Department of Education, Vol. XXVII, No. 9, August, 1958. 101. . (ed.) The School Psychologist. Sacra mento, California: Bulletin of the California State Department of Education, Vol. XXIV, No. 12, November, 195 5. 102. Cornell, E. L. Work of the School Psychologist. New York: University of the State of New York, Bulletin no. 1238, 1942. 103. Dudycha, G. J. School Psychologist. Edited by Sydney F. Austin. New Jersey: Occupational Abstract No. 125, 1949. 104. Mullen, Frances A. The Psychologist on the School Staff. American Psychologist Association, 1958. Unpublished Material 105. Conmission on Training of School Psychologists of the Southern Regional Education Board. "The Psycholo gist in the Schools," February 24, 1958. 106. Goertzen, Stan M. "Children*s Concepts of Psycholo gists and Psychiatrists," Alameda County Schools, California. 362 107. Tondow, Murray. "A Survey of the Major Responsi bilities of the School Psychologist/' California Association of School Psychologists and Psycho- metrists, 1956. Other Sources 108. Bulletin of the California State Department of Edu cation. "Directory of Administrative and Super visory Personnel of California Public Schools 1960-1961," Sacramento, California. Vol. XXIX, November, 1960. 109. Directory 1960-1961. California Association of School Psychologists and Psychometrists• 110. Directory of Certified Psychologists 1960. State of California, Department of Professions and Voca tional Standards, Board of Medical Examiners, Psychology Examining Commit tee, Sacramento, Cali fornia. appendixes • » ” r * f± n c < * -' Af *^W'* " • * ,.*S 'wV * ’ ? 1 -> w .t * * r 1 1 » ' ' i * ' « V* 364 # * «** . 1 .tiivtt 1 v C a i $ W f i S ! J ! I I ' T/Vf ' \'W i \^sm m * ‘ •'■vivi^yi : 1 1 M lm 1 8 1 !is January 3,1961 A STUDY QF THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST IN CAIIFQIINI/L* V v W 0 $ m i 8 $ 0 m m pft§ftli illgslis#* | » M l flB6 » as* . • • .:, . . and pqrttcfpaflons of jchpgl ^jajrchplpgWi^ •, *. In Ughtof those held by other role defiiiera. > •.,/ » ,.. ' V\ '"; , T h l* doctoral study I* being conducted jimderthe direction of the fatuity of the-School of Eduratlbn of the University of ' Southern California. Thanlc you foryour cooperation and sup- , port In filling out and; returning this survey at your earliest convenience. " Yours very truly, f t . . / . + . ‘ ^ .... . . v_ ^ . . _ . j . _ . _. .. . . ■ > .... J U ‘ i i, V ’ t , ri , < ^ j l TamEarlSmlth, ' r j “ , ‘ ~ Dtprtct Psydiologlst' ' V 1 : s Fullerton Elementary School* - - „ , , \ ^ >1 ' \ • “ . 1 _V ‘ * ~ - 8 < ' ' * - N f * \ ' '’ r * 1 f a t ■ £ \ * * > ’ s s'Wj*1 1 * 1 * , « 1 i * M * / * * / - r * * ^ M « T * ^ , i^ * /<nli - u v „ i , v v > » £ < ■ e J. i ^ t iuf.if'iw' J&J~# |js ^ V1 l “ fef: 5 ? AV ^ iniiitp i i h i # iiii pn ’ f t S ? h ■ f Z ' Z - Z t s * - : < f l w t o f l l — JM i M t W l d H M L Cc i ! y l i y o ^ r t i i n a p y ' ( o r t 5 1 l g 3 f i l d a a l i t l B r a n 3 2 . g t o w p t o f d i l l d i o n a p a m a t i 5 4. grwipcaf paromj^ P r o v i d i n g f r i t p l o y i t a r t l o n i I n w h l d i chlMmt may bo hdptd t o g a l g I n p g k f mtn and c o n t r o l war Hwtr a a t o p o n a l mnctlom and t o d a t o f o p oa*ptob|« r a o d t t it f a o h o v t o r t o r i 5 5 . I n dlvWoa U 56 mall g r o u p * I n t a n i w l n g , d b c u N f c i g , eovnnftng, w i t l u , ’ % . Vf M a h t o t o t o A t o S o t o r o o o M M H i h o H o i i i w B h i 4 ' 60 p r o t o r i o n o l ponon*________ f t ? ? t o ( h o o d n l n i i t r a ' l o n I k o n y l d n r x o o f t k o n t d d i l^illi total dbMM t o . i ' " * »o 1 > j tiwl d p w t a l pragwan* (. ** rodotor rioarw w iU ij)! to ■ t K i S f ! ( t o Mog o v o l l o b l i t o MMbomof a d i o o l b o o r d L V ; ^ - J 1 J < Jo a ■ ■ ■ ■ * ■ » * • w wiwi uwiUf ( f i M i whoa dodndrto dtmtopQihobghal tapncatton rfld»0lpott4«L_ • f e g u ' PwtkZpatl*^ to a/iricvlvm planning fan ’ iWim r o f l v l o . d o n a * ■ r t i © S E ‘ f t ' f f ? ! Working wHh t b o t c h c s t H o f f on p r o v i d i n g opffBum c o n d i t i o n * f o r l o o m i n g to* N t o «nd adnlhl H i a t o n op joaNon ' tafigtaddag aaftad ton . o d u c d h o n o i q c t M t l o * 7 0 . p u p i l wHwtoonl »wi iwdwiii to 'i^MwtfMptooogagvrfftgopllpnbtoM, »■ "oo dt ot oh co pto at oH iT WPll wo Mg dB . j M X* J s E H H R 5 ( * C ' ? $ V/ , T?1 ,y ■ > ' . . ■ \r ‘ . i Si w ^ Si . . . * m u l ■M 3j ) d t e M Ss ■P *m> 4 ^ i r i f t J Tin T* b * >V I I S W l S r i t S f T J ^ C * 35 rg * 8 ■IS Id vj -"t? ! t i -sy > i Cff*^l«Kl#nblp I n tU A r t u r o and pram o f i m l o a t t o n W W s f a ( w s * . * inf n, a ltobiMnt o f a d a c a t l o n a l oMocH om ■ i O M I J I I I 6 H j •TlA i 0 4 . -dwracMrMfa o f tka t a a w i w l l y - | t o w l 1— 4 r - S a * . * _ j k i f l f c - S * " U . . SSpSS^Si Wnhfrr uJwi ^ , jifjj, A. Ptognorrio Stodl* 1. M fa iH p V o h id ln t * * “ l ' “ P ContofopetowHhPyp*« s d fetont* b Cpwahonl- anttofeatoM 0 OrawpTf""»---- M u n l t y * o n r f e t o J fawo r d i Woamtodltoto Ik a w tapMtantyM fgri ffwo portorrooncoisro by ranking tta rln ord*r‘ , j « f f c p w t o n t o ffra tow t o ton. Pa not ban ««r any fraction*. W rll* H » frttar of it# J patfrnttone* oppoHt* tfo «mnt»r; I I 3 . 4. 5 . aoHhnporrant 6, 7. «. 9 10 l o o t f lupoifont 1 * A. St* ' ■ i MigaagsMawi i i i H i 3 1 ® aMwwfefaa January 23,1961 Dear Colleague: I am pleased to inform you th at response to the study on THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST IM CALIFORNIA has already reached 60% . If your reply is included among these, your assistance in having given immediate attention to the opinionaire is sincerely appreciated. It may be th at you have not yet found time to add the strength of your thoughts to this research. If not, may I respectfully ask th at you complete the survey instrument in order th at the study will ’ V *. a comprehensive picture of professional attitudes concerning the role of the school psychologist Again, my deepest appreciation for your help. Tom Earl Smith Fullerton Elementary School District 340 E. Wilshire Avenue Fullerton, California ^

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Creator Smith, Tom Earl (author)

Core Title An Analysis Of The Role Of The School Psychologist In The State Of California

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, educational psychology,OAI-PMH Harvest

Format dissertations (aat)

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Wagner, Elmer E. (committee chair), Carnes, Earl F. (committee member), Lefever, David Welty (committee member), Perry, Raymond C. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-267718

Unique identifier UC11358572

Identifier 6203748.pdf (filename),usctheses-c18-267718 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 6203748.pdf

Dmrecord 267718

Document Type Dissertation

Format dissertations (aat)

Rights Smith, Tom Earl

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA