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Assessment of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning


Course Description

Administration, scoring, and interpretation of test materials designed to diagnose social and emotional adjustment problems in school children. Emphasis is given to the effects of social and emotional adjustment on adjustment in schools.


Athena Title

Social Emotional Assessment


Equivalent Courses

Not open to students with credit in EPSY 7200E


Prerequisite

EPSY 8140 or EPSY 6240 or EPSY 6240E


Semester Course Offered

Offered every year.


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

1. Increase understanding of the history of social-emotional assessment of children 2. Increase understanding of four major issues in social-emotional assessment; Eye-of-the-beholder problem, stability problem, description as cause problem, and usefulness in intervention problem 3. Provide students with skills in the selection and use of instrumentation in the early childhood period 4. Provide students with skills in the selection and use of instrumentation in the school-aged period 5. Provide students with skills in the selection and use of instrumentation in adolescence 6. Provide students with skills in selection and use of instrumentation to assess child-parent and child-teacher relationships 7. Provide students with skills to integrate information from different sources


Topical Outline

  • 1. Introduction: Definition of terms
  • 2. The four central issues in social-emotional assessment of children a. Eye-of-the-beholder problem b. Trait-sign problem c. Stability problem d. Prediction versus behavior change issue
  • 3. Methods of objective test construction a. Theory based approaches b. International consistency approaches
  • 4. Assessments of infants and preschool children a. Developmental issues b. Assessment of normal variations (temperament, personality) c. Assessment of behavior problems
  • 5. Assessment of children ages 7-12 a. Developmental issues b. Assessment of normal variations (temperament, personality) c. Assessment of behavior problems
  • 6. Assessment of adolescents and adult caretakers a. Developmental issues b. Assessment of normal variations (temperament, personality) c. Assessment of behavior problems
  • Case examples

Syllabus