BEST PRACTICES
CHAPTER 10:
Award-winning school psychology programs possess a series of characteristics:
1. Highly qualified practitioners and a wide range of expertise
2. The delivery of comprehensive services to all students
3. Commitment to pre-referral intervention/prevention activities
4. The use of school-based collaborative consultation and pre-referral intervention
5. Linking assessment to intervention
6. Articulating departmental successes
7. Accountability through efficacy data
8. Malleability and adaptability to ever changing demands
9. Continuing professional development
10. Departmental autonomy and supervision by a school psychologist
11. Involvement in research
12. Commitment to training future school psychologists
CHAPTER 13
School psychologists have an ethical obligation to maintain professional competence, and
continuing professional development (CPD) activities are generally required to renew
professional licensure or certification.
1. School psychologists must make a commitment to be lifelong learners,
recognizing that CPD is a professional obligation to oneself, the profession, and
consumers
2. Each school psychologist should have an individualized CPD plan
3. School psychologists should engage in regular evaluation of their training and
continuing professional development
4. Continuing professional development activities should be selected to be consistent
with the learning needs and goals that were identified
5. A variety of CPD learning activities should be considered, and should be
evaluated in terms of its quality, appropriateness, and potential impact on learning
6. Should be active learners, and foster involvement in problem-solving, discussion,
case studies, and skills practice
7. Must evaluate the implementation and outcomes of CPD activities.
ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Approach:
Bronfenbrenner believes we cannot fully understand development without considering
how a person fits into each of these levels:
1. Microsystem: includes the everyday immediate environment in which people
lead their daily lives. This would include homes, caregivers, friends, and teachers
2. Mesosystem: This is the connections between various aspects of the mesosystem.
It binds children to parents, students to teachers, employees to bosses, neighbors,
child-care centers, play groups.
3. Exosystem: This is the broader influences on behavior and development such as
societal institutions (government, community, schools, place of worship, and local
media). They can have an immediate and major impact on personal development
and affect how the microsytem and mesosytems operate.
4. Macrosystem: This is the larger cultural influences on an individual (types of
government, society in general, religious systems, political thought, and other
broad factors).
This approach emphasizes the INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF THE INFLUENCES ON
DEVELOPMENT. A CHANGE IN ONE PART OF THE SYSTEM CAN AFFECT OTHER
PARTS OF THE SYSTEM. It also suggests that changes in one environment may make
little differences if other levels are not also changed.
COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT-
Focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about
the world, and it emphasizes how people internally represent and think about the world.
It also emphasizes how children and adults process information, and how their ways of
thinking and understanding affect their behavior.
Piaget – Action = Knowledge, which means that Piaget believed that knowledge is the
product of direct motor behavior. His major point is that new reasoning abilities depend
on the emergence of previous ones. Children believed that children pass through four
major stages in an orderly fashion:
1. SENSORIMOTOR = 0-2 years
Substages:
a. Simple Reflexes (first month of life) – sucking reflex
b. First habits and primary circular reactions (1-4 months) – combining
grasping with sucking on an object do circular reactions just for the
enjoyment of it = focused on the infant.
c. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months) – beginning to act on outside
world, schemes regarded as repeated actions meant to bring about a
desirable consequence. Ex. Repeatedly picking up object and shaking it
different ways = focused on the relating to the outside world.
d. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months) achieve
OBJECT PERMANENCE – will push one toy out of the way to reach
another toy that lies partially exposed.
e. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months) – Deliberate variations of
actions that bring desirable consequences (like mini-experiements).
f. Beginnings of thought (18 months to 2 years)
2. PREOPERATIONAL THINKING = 2 years to around 7 years of age
During this stage, the use of symbolic thinking grows, mental representation emerges,
and the use of concepts increases. Are still not capable of operations, or organized,
formal, logical mental processes.
a. Centration is a key element of thinking of children in this period. = The
process of concentrating on one limited aspect of a stimulus and ignoring
other aspects (ex., a cat with a dog mask is a dog).
b. Ecocentrism: = Hallmark of preoperational period. Egocentric thought is
thinking that does not take into account the viewpoints of other.
c. Incomplete understanding of Transformation: The inability to envision
or recall successive transformations or stages. (Ex. Pencil falling)
d. Intuitive thought: This is primitive reasoning and avid curiosity. They
believe they know the answers but cannot back up their reasoning. Start to
show awareness of identity (that people don’t change from boy to girl) and
functionality
e. Conservation: This is the knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the
arrangement and physical appearances of objects.
3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL = (around 7 to 12 years)
Characterized by the active and appropriate use of logic. Are no longer being
influenced solely by appearance.
a. Decentering: The ability to take multiple aspects of a situation into
account because of being less egocentric.
b. Reversibility: Understand that processes that transform a stimulus can be
reversed (3 + 5 = 8 and 5 + 3 = 8)
4. FORMAL OPERATIONS = (around 12 years)
The stage at which people develop the ability to think abstractly. Some evidence
suggests that many people never fully employ formal operational thought.
Children have mental structures, schemes, which are organized patterns of sensorimotor
functioning that adapt and change with mental development through assimilation
(understanding experiences within existing patterns of thought) and accommodation
(changes in ways of thinking, behaving, and understanding o match novel experiences).
Lev Vygotsky: He argues that in order to understand cognitive development, we must
look at the social aspects of development and learning. He believed that cognitive
development proceeds as a result of social interactions where partners jointly work to
solve problems. Because culture and society establish institutions, culture and society
shape specific cognitive processes. We must look at what is important to members of a
given society. In short, COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IS DEPENDENT ON
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHERS.
Major Ideas:
1. Zone of Proximal Development = the level at which a child can almost, but not
fully, perform a task independently, but can do so with the assistance of someone
more competent.
2. Scaffolding = The support for learning and problems solving that encourages
independence and growth. This includes helping children think about and frame a
task in an appropriate manner and providing clues to task completion that are
appropriate to the child’s level of development.
3. Private Speech = Speech by children that is spoken and directed to themselves,
and is used to guide behavior and thought. By communicating with themselves
through private speech, children are able to try out ideas, acting as their own
sounding boards. Vygotsky suggests it facilitates children’s thinking and they use
it to help them control their behavior. Peaks around 4 to 7.
The main difference between Piaget and Vygotsky is that Piaget suggests classroom
experiences should focus on already existing cognitive structures within the
particular stage the child has reached, while Vygotsky argues that cognitive
advances can be made through active learning. Cooperative Learning and
Reciprocal Teaching methods have stemmed from Vygotsky’s work.
BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: - A type of learning in which an organism responds in a
particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that type of
response. In classical conditioning, the animal’s or person’s behavior does not have any
environmental consequences, and the response is reflexive (based on reflexes). Classical
condition may help account for:
Likes and dislikes
Emotional responses to particular objects and events
Unusual desires
Consumer preferences
Fears and phobias
Pavlov: Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who was studying salivation in dogs
and coined the terms:
1. Classical Conditioning: The process by which a neutral stimulus becomes a
conditioned stimulus
2. Unconditional Stimulus (US) – Term for a stimulus that elicits a reflexive
response in the absence of learning.
3. Unconditioned Response (UR) – A reflexive response elicited by a stimulus in
the absence of learning.
4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – Term for an initially neutral stimulus that comes to
elicit a conditioned response after being associated with an unconditioned
stimulus.
5. Conditioned Response (CR) – Term for a response that is elicited by a
conditioned stimulus.
6. Extinction – When a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the
unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response disappears.
7. Higher-Order Conditioning – A procedure in which a neutral stimulus becomes
a conditioned stimulus though association with an already established conditioned
stimulus. May contribute to the formation of prejudices.
Watson: Recognized the implication of Pavlonian theory and founded American
behaviorism. Watson believed that most fears are conditioned responses to stimuli that
were originally neutral. Demonstrated that phobias can be taught (Little Albert being
taught to be afraid of a rat).
OPERARANT CONDITIONING – A form of learning in which a voluntary response is
strengthened or weakened by its association with positive or negative consequences.
Generally, responses in operant conditioning are complex and not reflexive.
B.F. Skinner:
Skinner believed that people learn to act deliberately on their environments in order to
bring about desired consequences. What we need to know to understand behavior are the
external causes of an action and the action’s consequences. Thus, he avoided
assumptions about what an organism feels.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect: Correct responses after trial and errors become “stamped in”
when receive satisfying effect.
Three Types of Consequences:
1. Neutral neither increases or decreases the probability that a behavior will recur.
2. Reinforcement – The process by which a stimulus strengthens or increases the
probability of the response that it follows.
3. Punishment – The process by which a stimulus or event weakens the response
that it follows, reducing the probability of a response.
Other Terms:
1. Positive Reinforcement – A procedure in which a response is followed by the
presentation of, or increase in intensity of, a pleasant stimulus (thus, response
becomes stronger and more likely to occur).
2. Negative Reinforcement – A procedure in which a response is followed by the
removal, delay, or decrease in intensity of an unpleasant stimulus (thus, response
becomes stronger or more likely to occur).
3. Positive Punishment – When a response is followed by the presentation of or
increase in intensity of an unpleasant stimulus (thus, response is less likely to
occur).
4. Negative Punishment – When a response is followed by the removal, delay, or
decrease in intensity of a pleasant stimulus (response is less likely to occur).
5. Primary Reinforcers and Punishers – A stimulus that is inherently reinforcing
or punishing, typically associated with a physiological need or response
(reinforcer = food, punishment = electric shock).
6. Secondary Reinforcers and Punishers – A stimulus that has acquired
reinforcing or punishing properties through associations with other reinforcers or
punishers.
7. Extinction – Is also a term in classical conditioning, meaning the weakening and
eventual disappearance of a learned response; in operant conditioning, it occurs
when the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
8. Continuous Reinforcement – When a response is first acquired, learning is
usually most rapid if the response is reinforced each time it occurs = continuous
reinforcement.
9. Partial or Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement – A reinforcement schedule
in which a particular response is sometimes but not always reinforced.
a. Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule – Reinforcement occurs after a fixed number
of responses. They produce high rates of responding, although
performance drops just after reinforcement (ex., selling a certain number
of items before getting commission).
b. Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule – Reinforcement occurs after some
average number of responses, but the number varies from reinforcement to
reinforcement. These produce extremely high, steady rates of responding,
and the responses are more resistant to extinction (ex. slot machine).
c. Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule – Reinforcement occurs only if a fixed
amount of time has passed. Not very helpful in real world because after a
reinforcer is delivered, often stop responding altogether.
d. Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule – Reinforcement of a response occurs
after a variable amount of time has passed. Because the animal or person
cannot predict when a reward will come, responding is relatively low but
steady.
10. Shaping – An operant conditioning procedure in which successive
approximations (behaviors that are ordered in terms of increasing similarity or
closeness to a desired response) of a desired response are reinforced. For
example, if you want a dog to open the refrigerator, reward to for turning to
fridge, reward for touching fridge, reward for grabbing rag on fridge, reward for
pulling on rag, etc.
11. Behavior Modification – Conditioning techniques to teach new responses or to
reduce or eliminate maladaptive or problematic behavior. Many behavior
modification programs rely on the token economy. Tokens are secondary
reinforcers that have no real value in themselves but are exchangeable for primary
reinforcers or for other secondary reinforcers.
SOCIAL-COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY
Albert Bandura: Bandura believed that a significant amount of learning is explained by
Social-cognitive learning theory. In other words, we learn by observing the behavior of
another person, called a model (bobo doll versus tinker toy experiment).
This theory holds that when we see the behavior of a model being reinforced/rewarded,
we are likely to imitate that behavior.
Modeling then paves the way for more general rules and principles in a process called
abstract modeling, where children begin to develop generalized principles that underlie
the behavior they observe.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY: - the approach that states that behavior is motivated
by inner forces, memories, and conflicts that are generally beyond people’s awareness
and control.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY:
Freud: His theory was that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior.
Believed that development was mostly complete by adolescence. He also believed that
one’s personality had three aspects:
1. Id = The raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality, present at birth, that
represents primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational
impulses
2. Ego = The part of personality that is rational and reasonable
3. Superego = The aspect of one’s personality that represents a person’s conscience,
incorporating distinctions between right and wrong.
Freud’s Stages of Development:
1. Oral (Birth to 12-18 months)
2. Anal (12-18 months to 3 years)
3. Phallic (3 to 5-6 years)
4. Latency (5-6 years to adolescence)
5. Genital (Adolescence to adulthood)
PSYCHOSOCAL THEORY:
Erikson: He believed that developmental change occurs throughout our lives in eight
distinct stages that the individual must resolve. He believes that no crisis is ever fully
resolved, but we must address the crisis of each stage sufficiently to deal with demands in
the next stages.
Erikson’s Stages of Development:
1. Trust vs. mistrust (Birth to 12-18 months)
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (12-18 months to 3 years)
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3 years to 5-6 years
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (5-6 years to adolescence)
5. Identity vs. role diffusion (Adolescence)
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early adulthood)
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle adulthood)
8. Ego-Integrity vs. Despair (Late adulthood)
HUMANISTIC THEORY: This perspective contends that people have a natural
capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior. Each individual
has the ability and motivation to reach more advanced levels of maturity, and people
naturally seek to reach their full potential. Emphasis on Free Will = the ability of
humans to make choices and come to decisions about their lives.
Carl Rogers: Believed that all people have a need for positive regard that results from an
underlying wish to be loved and respected. Because other people provide this positive
regard, we are dependent on others and our view of ourselves and our self-worth is a
reflection of how we think others view us.
EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: The theory that seeks to identify behavior that is a result
of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors.
Darwin: Evolutionary approaches contend that our genetic inheritance determines not
only physical traits such as skin and eye color, but also certain personality traits and
social behaviors.