Social-Emotional Assessment Practices in School Psychology

Abstract

This study examined the social-emotional assessment practices of a random sample of school psychologists in the United States. For each assessment instrument, respondents indicated frequency of use, rationale for use, information gained, importance, and scoring system used. Results indicate that projective tests remain popular, are used primarily to generate hypotheses about social-emotional functioning, are viewed as important in the assessment process, are applied for a range of purposes, and often are scored with personalized systems. Most objective tests are used to confirm hypotheses about social-emotional functioning, also are viewed as important in the assessment process, and are applied for various purposes. Surprisingly, a considerable percentage of school psychologists use personalized systems to score some objective tests. Implications of the findings are discussed.