An examination of the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary in the psychological assessment of children and adolescents: Implications for the education of professional psychologists.

摘要

Interviews were conducted with identified experts in the area of child and adolescent psychological assessment. The purpose of these interviews was to determine the key components of knowledge, attitude, and skill required for effective assessment of children and adolescents. Psychological assessment was defined as the use of one or more standardized instruments to gather data that is combined with data from other sources to inform some type of intervention. The Affinity Diagram or KJ Method was used to analyze the interview data into themes. The resulting themes closely match the conclusions reached in the literature, while offering a level of consolidation and definition to some of these ideas that had not been achieved before. The project represents a first step in responding to the call issued by the National Council of Schools of Professional Psychology to define the components of knowledge, attitude, and skill in each of its six core competency areas. Implications of the current findings are discussed.