Communicativeness of School Psychologists\u27 Reports: Interaction Between Report Writer & Report Format

The research literature concerning psychological report writing regards communication as the fundamental purpose of the psychological report. In order to deal directly with the communicative potential of psychological reports, the degree and manner in which the memo and the psychoeducational formats communicated the report writer\u27s findings and diagnostic impressions to the reader was investigated. The sample population consisted of 49 participants representing psychologists-in-training (13), special education teachers (10), regular classroom teachers (12), and parents (14). Those in the professional groups were enrolled in graduate courses at Western Kentucky University. The parents were non-teaching staff members at Western Kentucky University and/or residents of Bowling Green, Kentucky. In an analysis of variance, each of the following variables was examined for significance at the .01 level: (a) consumer group (psychologists-in-training versus special education teachers versus regular classroom teachers versus parents,. (b) format (memo versus psychoeducational), and (c) interaction of consumer group and format. The analysis showed that the consumer groups differed significantly in the degree of communication that they received from the reports. While the percentage differences between some of the groups were small, the analysis revealed a statistically significant variation between the psychologists-in-training and the parents; the degree of communicativeness of both formats was highest for psychologists-in-training and lowest for parents. However, format and interaction of consumer group and format were not found to significantly influence communication. Therefore, since there was no loss of communication in comparison to the psychoeducational format, the memo remains a viable option for those who want to use it