From those 200 tasks, the most reported were 25 of which 50% were assessment tasks. In other words, half of the most common activities performed by Spanish psychologists concern our discipline. I must now refer to the incidence of assessment tasks in specific applied settings. P In the first place, in the area of clinical and health psychology, activities linking assessment and treatment are involved (for example, "diagnosis and treatment of depression problems") along with other activities which are exclusively assessment oriented. Taking into account only the latter, the three --not mutually exclusive-- activities carried out by the greatest number of psychologists are the following: (1) "conducting interviews for clinical diagnosis" (47% of psychologists confirm carrying out this activity); (2) "diagnosis of patients" (46%); and (3) "diagnosis of the patient's for counselling" (40%). In addition, it must be pointed out that all of these activities are increasing in frequency; that is, psychologists state that they carry out these three types of activities more at present than in the past. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that in comparative terms, there is no other activity listed in the survey in the clinical and health context that is cited more often than "conducting interviews for clinical diagnosis"; this is followed by "treating patients with psychological problems" (46,8%). In summary, clinical and health psychologists identify assessment tasks as being specific to their professional activities and the frequency of occurence of these tasks is increasing.
In the area of school/educational psychology we can also find two categories of assessment tasks: those involved in the "diagnosis and treatment of..." types of problems, and those that refer to activities which are purely assessment oriented or diagnostic in nature. Among the former, the one most cited is that referring to "diagnosis and treatment of learning disorders" (40.5%); among the latter, the frequency of the most important tasks is as follows: (1) "Preparation of reports for children who have been assessed" (35.6% of the psychologists surveyed report that they carry out this task); (2) "preparation of diagnostic reports for children" (35%); (3) "Individual or collective testing" (24,9%); and (4) "Evaluation of batteries of tests of maturity for children" (23,6%). All of these activities are carried out less frequently at present, than in the past. As we can see, this seems to be the opposite of what occurs in clinical and health psychology.
In the area of work/organizational psychology, a large number of tasks concerns assessment and these are also the most frequently cited by the Spanish psychologists devoted to this field who have been consulted. The five most important activities are as follows: (1) "administration of assessment tests" (18.7% of the psychologists report carrying out this task); (2) "participation in selection processess as an assessor" (18.7%); (3) "holding personnel selection interviews" (18.7%); (4) "psychological assessment of candidates" (17.4%); and (5) "checking assessment tests for selection" (17.4%). To summarize, assessment tasks seem to constitute the main body of activities in this applied area.
In the area of psychologists working in social services, assessment tasks take place less frequently than in any other area and can be divided into two categories. The first concerns program evaluation, for example: "evaluation of results of an intervention program (8.2% of the psychologists surveyed report carrying out this task), and "detection, identification and assessment of social needs" (4.7%). The second category covers assessment tasks regarding a specific target population such as, for example: "preparation of the clinical interview for drug addicts" (5,5%) or "personalized diagnosis of problems of drug addiction". (6.5%).
In the area of forensic psychology, there has only been one assessment task listed "general diagnosis by means of interviews and psychological tests". Nevertheless, this task is the one that is the most often cited (11.7%). Consequently, we must consider once again, those tasks that are related to psychological assessment, as the basis of applied work in this field.
It has previously been mentioned that in the other areas of applied psychology --in traffic, correctional and military Psychology-- the tasks present in the questionnaire are exclusively assessment oriented (for example, "giving psychological tests" or "preparation of assessment reports and diagnosis", etc.)
To conclude, from the analysis of results taken from a representative sample of Spanish psychologists, reported above, the following points have to be underlined: (1) Assessment in all of its aspects (planning counselling or treatment, tests administration, scoring or interpretation, preparation of reports, etc.), is present in all contexts of applied psychology. In addition, this proves what has already been observed regarding research. (2) In all settings, assessment tasks appear to be carried out more often than other any activity (except in the area of social services). This occurs to a greater extent in those areas which have been developed most recently in applied psychology such as traffic psychology or forensic psychology. In any case, it seems to be clear that psychological assessment involves an important set of activities fundamental to Psychology in practice.
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
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LAST UPDATED Sunday 6 de August de 1995 - -