I shall concentrate on an analysis of the only publication devoted to assessment in Spain: Evaluación Psicológica/ Psychological Assessment (EP/PA) (1985-1989) (as I have already said, it was transformed into the European Journal of Psychological Assessment in 1992 (see Fernández-Ballesteros, 1990). The content categories used were the following: History and Concepts, Methodological Issues, Basic technology, Personality Assessment, Assessment of Intelligence, Psychopathological Assessment, Psychophysiological and Neuropsychological Assessment, Environment Assessment, Health Assessment, Assessment of Change and Program Evaluation, Interests, Assessment in Organizational Psychology, Assessment of Therapeutic Relationships, and, Others. The distributions of the articles which have been classified into 14 categories are shown in absolute and relative numbers in Table 2. Thus, we can observe that 14.9% of the papers published are devoted to personality assessment and the same number of papers to assessment of intelligence; 10.8% are devoted to the research of basic technology (interviews, observations, etc.); and 9,4% offers discussions and methodological studies (process, scientific guarantees, etc.) and conceptual studies (theoretical models, history, etc.). It is also important to point out that --in a relatively smaller proportion-- new topics such as environmental assessment, evaluation of change and program evaluation or evaluation of therapeutic relationships are being published.
Attempting to make comparisons between the psychological assessment research conducted in Spain and in other countries we carried out a similar analysis on the internationally well known Mc Reynolds Series Advances in Psychological Assessment (APA) (Vol.1 through 6; see Fernández-Ballesteros, in press). The results, that can be seen in Table 2, yielded differences regarding the following topics: basic technology (APA, +8.9%), assessment of intelligence (APA, -9.2%), psychopathology (APA, +7.3%), environmental assessment (APA, +5.8%), behavioral change appraisal/program evaluation (APA, -1.7%), therapeutical relationships (only EP/PA, 6.8%). Below, we can find a more accurate analysis about differences between both publications.
TABLE 2 AROUND HEREIn order to establish comparisons between psychological assessment and other fields of Psychology we are going to examine other general spanish scientific events. As I have stated earlier, psychological assessment is basically an applied discipline. It covers that field of knowledge which is needed to approach the scientific study of behavior/s and psychological characteristics of one human subject (or a specific group of subjects) with many different goals such as diagnosis, counselling, career development, personnel selection, treatment planning (behavioral change) and evaluation. But it is also true that psychological assessment is devoted to the development of measuring devices which help to advance the science of psychology itself. It is important to find out the relative balance between psychological assessment and other psychological fields.
Whith this purpose in mind, an analysis of the contributions regarding psychological assessment presented at the 2nd Congress of Psychologists (Valencia, 1990; approximatly two thousand psychologists attended this Congress) was conducted (Fernández-Ballesteros, in press). This Congress covered 11 divisions or areas (see list of the 11 areas in Table 3). Two important results emerged; firstly, the number of research papers presented in the psychological assessment area was greater than those presented in other areas. And, secondly, in the other areas many papers were devoted to psychological assessment topics. Let us briefly look at the results of the analysis which was carried out in order to appreciate the implications of these findings.
Of the 11 areas (or divisions) that served as a basis for the organization of the different scientific events of the 2nd Congress of Psychologists, one of them made specific reference to psychological assessment. Nevertheless, an analysis of the Abstracts Program showed that there were papers concerning psychological assessment in the rest of the areas of applied psychology (School, Work, Clinical Psychology etc., see Table 3). Furthermore when taking all the papers presented to the Congress regarding assessment into account, it can be seen that these papers made up 27.2% of the total of all papers that were presented at the Congress. This percentage was greater than that accorded to any other area of applied psychology (for example, greater than those contributions to health and clinical Psychology). The conclusion here is clear: assessment research represents an important part of the research that is being carried out by Spanish applied psychologists.
But, once again, what are the main research topics in psychological assessment? In order to answer this question, the papers concerning assessment that had been presented at the already mentioned Congress were classified according to their contents. First of all, in Table 3, it can be seen that clinical topics (such as assessment of anxiety, depression, stress or mental health) make up a fourth of the research work carried out in the area of assessment. A second research subject concerns counselling, personnel selection and advisory reports. It is important to note that this research topic is carried out entirely outside the specific area of psychological assessment by psychologists devoted, mainly, to work and school psychology as well as traffic, forensic and military psychology. Finally, a third area of interest is focused on program or treatment evaluation.
To summarize, although it is true that research in psychological assessment is strongly related to clinical psychology, other applied fields are contributing to its research and development.
TABLE 3 AROUND HEREFinally, we attempted to establish comparisons between three sources of assessment research data. With this purpose, an Analysis of Correspondance (AC) was conducted (Fernández-Ballesteros, in press) with the results of the content analysis made of the contributions to the Second Congress of Psychologists, the specialized Spanish journal Evaluación Psicológica/Psychological Assessment and the international publication from Mc Reynolds Advances in Psychological Assessment. The ANCORSIM program was used; coordinates axis, absolute contribution (AC), and relative contribution (RC) of each category were taken into account. Briefly, a visual impression of the results yielded can be seen in Figure 1. Two different spaces were established where the majority of the research works included could be installed; in the first one, contributions to the 2nd Congress concerning applied topics (clinical & health, work & organization, etc.) can be placed. On the other side, in an opposite and distant space, much more basic topics published by EP/PA and APA were settled (such as intelligence and personality assessment, environmental assessment, basic methodology and techniques, history, etc). Maybe this empirical distinction refers to the difference between basic and applied Psychology separating two national fields of research constributions (2nd Congress and EP/PA) and linking two international publications (EP/PA and APA). But, obviously, differences between EP/PA and APA were also established showing the especificity of both publications.
FIG.1 AROUND HERE
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
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