School Psychologists' Diagnostic Decision-Making Processes: Objective-Subjective Discrepancies
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
1-1-1998
Abstract
A body of literature suggests that decision makers often lack insight into the cues or variables they use to reach conclusions. We studied this hypothesis by comparing school psychologists' subjective versus objective cue use when analyzing three clinical cases. Working from a set of assessment data, the psychologists selected 1 of 16 categories of information at a time, based on preference. After each selection, the psychologists formulated a preliminary diagnosis, rated their confidence in that diagnosis, and rated the importance of the information in that category for the diagnosis. They continued this process until they felt they had enough information to make a final diagnosis. For all three cases, results indicated that there was little correspondence between the psychologists' subjective impressions about the importance of information and objective measures of the impact that information had on diagnostic judgments. © 1998 Society for the Study of School Psychology.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Journal of School Psychology
Volume
36
Issue
2
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Aspel, Andrew D., W. G. Willis, and David Faust. "School Psychologists' Diagnostic Decision-Making Processes: Objective-Subjective Discrepancies." Journal of School Psychology 36, 2 (1998): 137-149. doi: 10.1016/S0022-4405(98)00002-8.