Ideal and real role functions of the school psychologist as perceived by school psychologists in public schools and their immediate supervisors, school psychologist trainees, and school psychologists in higher education

Abstract

The major research questions of the study addressed two specific purposes: (1) to provide descriptive data pertaining to perceptions of ideal and real role functions of school psychologists for four groups, doctoral level school psychologists in public schools, immediate supervisors of school psychologists, directors/supervisors of doctoral level school psychology training programs, and doctoral level school psychology graduate students, and for two professional environments, the public school setting and the university training setting; and (2) to compare ideal and real perceptions of school psychologist role functions within each of the four groups, between groups in each of the two settings, and between the two professional settings. To accomplish these purposes, 195 doctoral level school psychologists employed in public schools and 55 directors/supervisors of doctoral level school psychology training programs were identified through listings for Division 16, School Psychology, in the 1981 edition of the Directory of the American Psychological Association. Each of these two groups were mailed packets containing two-page questionnaires and requested to distribute additional questionnaires to the second group of subjects in their professional setting. The final sample consisted of 95 usable returns from school psychologists in public schools, 67 responses from immediate supervisors, 27 usable returns from the directors/supervisors of training programs, and 148 responses from school psychologists in training. Questionnaires solicited demographic information and ratings of ideal and real perceptions of 24 professional functions of doctoral level school psychologists employed by public schools. Descriptive statistics for demographic information and ratings of the 24 dependent variables on both ideal and real dimensions were computed. Mean ratings for ideal and real dimensions were rank ordered, and differences between means were calculated. Significance of difference was determined utilizing subjects-by-trials and single classification analyses of variance. Results from the study indicated significant differences between perceptions of ideal and real role functions within each of the four groups surveyed. Comparisons between perceptions of doctoral level school psychologists and their immediate supervisors revealed significant disparities, especially for views of reality. Relative perceptual congruence was found between the directors/supervisors of doctoral level training programs and school psychologists in training. Significant differences resulted from comparisons between the public school setting and the university training environment. Implications of these findings are discussed as are potential directions for future research.