The relationship between self-determination, experiential knowledge base, and role conflict to the consultation practice of school psychologists
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the variables of self-determination, experiential knowledge base, and role conflict to the discrepancy between the actual and desired amounts of consultation practice of school psychologists. Subjects included 304 school psychologists who held membership in the New York Association of School Psychologists. A 23-item survey instrument was developed by the author which measured the variables of self-determination, experiential knowledge base, role conflict, and discrepancy in consultation practice. Demographic data were also collected on the subjects. Path analysis was used to demonstrate the unidirectional causal relationships between self-determination, experiential knowledge base, role conflict, and discrepancy in consultation practice. The author hypothesized that the more self-determination school psychologists perceived they had would result in a lower amount of role conflict and therefore lead to less discrepancy between their actual and desired consultation practice. Additionally, it was postulated that the more experience and knowledge school psychologists had, the lower the amount of role conflict they would exhibit and therefore less discrepancy between their actual and desired consultation practice. The results of the path analysis indicated that the direct paths from self-determination and experiential knowledge base were negatively correlated to discrepancy in consultation practice. Also found was that while self-determination and role conflict independently seemed to be the strongest predictors of school psychologists' discrepancy in consultation practice, the combination of self-determination and role conflict had a meaningful influence on discrepancy in consultation practice. The findings suggested that system expectations were not the only consideration in the problem of increasing the amount of participation in consultation by school psychologists. Implications for school psychologists, administrators, and coordinators of training programs of school psychologists were discussed as well as recommendations for future research.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
Schippa, Joseph Thomas, "The relationship between self-determination, experiential knowledge base, and role conflict to the consultation practice of school psychologists" (1997). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9809019.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9809019
