Irene W. Leigh

Guiding Principles and Recommendations for the Assessment of Competence

This article presents guiding principles for the assessment of competence developed by the members of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Assessment of Competence in Professional Psychology. These principles are applicable to the education, training, and credentialing of professional psychologists, and to practicing psychologists across the professional life span. The principles are built upon a review of competency assessment models, including practices in both psychology and other professions. These principles will help to ensure that psychologists reinforce the importance of a culture of competence. The implications of the principles for professional psychology also are highlighted.

Competency Assessment Models

This article describes characteristics of alternative assessment models deployed in the measurement of professional competencies across the professional life span based on the work of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Assessment of Competence in Professional Psychology. Assessments of knowledge, decision making, performance and personal attributes, as well as integrated practice-based skills and tasks are described and compared on the basis of their validity, feasibility and practicality, fidelity, and relevance at difference stages of professional development. It is acknowledged that no single assessment can evaluate all competencies and that assessments can be combined in complementary ways. Assessments deployed in the nursing, dental, and medical professions are reviewed and contrasted with current practices in psychology. At the licensure level, differences in the assessments deployed among the 4 healthcare professions are described, and their candidate fees and number of candidates assessed annually are documented. Ideas for developing new assessments in psychology are discussed on the basis of the needs and financial resources available to psychology and the experiences of other healthcare professions.

Challenges to the Assessment of Competence and Competencies

Challenges to the assessment of competence and competencies in professional psychology are discussed in this article. These include difficulties in defining competencies in precise and measurable terms; reaching agreement within the profession about the key elements of each competence domain; establishing an armamentarium of tools for assessing all components of competence, including the knowledge base, skills, and attitudes (and their integration); determining appropriate agreed-upon minimal levels of competence for individuals at different levels of professional development and when “competence problems” exist for individuals; assuring the fidelity of competency assessments; and establishing mechanisms for providing effective evaluative feedback and remediation. But even if these challenges JAMES W. LICHTENBERG received his PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Minnesota. He is a professor of counseling psychology and the associate dean for graduate programs and research at the University of Kansas. His areas of professional interest and research include social interaction processes and dynamics, legal and ethical issues in counseling and psychotherapy, and clinical training. SANFORD M. PORTNOY received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts. He is on the faculty of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, where he serves as director of the Center for the Study of Psychology and Divorce, and is a member of Needham Psychotherapy Associates in Needham, Massachusetts, and of Portnoy Associates in Newton, Massachusetts. His professional and research interests include the psychology of divorce and the effects of the legal divorce process on families, couples therapy, and teaching legal professionals the skills to relate more effectively to their clients. MURIEL J. BEBEAU received her PhD in educational psychology from Arizona State University. She is a professor in the School of Dentistry at the University of Minnesota, faculty associate in the university’s Center for Bioethics, and director of the Center for the Study of Ethical Development. Her scholarly work integrates the psychology of morality with ethics and dentistry to design and validate assessment strategies and teaching methods to promote professional ethical development. IRENE W. LEIGH received her PhD in clinical psychology from New York University. She is a professor in the clinical psychology doctoral program at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Her presentations, research, and publications have focused on deaf people and issues related to identity, multiculturalism, parenting, attachment, depression, and cochlear implants. PAUL D. NELSON received his PhD from the University of Chicago. He recently retired as the deputy director of education and director of graduate and postdoctoral education and training for the Education Directorate of the American Psychological Association. His focus has been on graduate

Intimate Partner Violence Against Deaf Female College Students

It has been estimated that roughly 25% of all Deaf women in the United States are victims of intimate partner violence (Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services [ADWAS]), a figure similar to annual prevalence rates of 16% to 30% for intimate partners in the general population. One goal of the present study was to ascertain the prevalence of intimate partner violence victimization in a sample of Deaf female college students. When comparing the prevalence of physical assault, psychological aggression, and sexual coercion victimization to hearing female undergraduates, the current sample was approximately two times as likely to have experienced victimization in the past year.

Providing psychological services to deaf individuals: A response to new perceptions of diversity.

The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 mandates that psychologists provide equal access to services for persons with disabilities. Disabled individuals, including deaf and hard of hearing persons, form an important part of the diversity spectrum. Deafness and hearing loss significantly affect life experiences, development, and the ability to obtain and use services. Psychologists must develop awareness of the implications thereof in order to provide appropriate services in an ethical manner to such clients. This article presents core knowledge about deafness and hearing loss in an effort to enhance this necessary awareness for practitioners not specializing in this area.

Toward Greater Understanding of Depression in Deaf Individuals

We compared the prevalence of depressive symptoms among deaf and hearing college students and examined the relationships among depressive symptoms, personality characteristics, and perceived parental attitudes and behaviors in these two groups. Measures were revised to meet the language needs of the deaf subjects. Mild levels of depressive symptoms were more prevalent in the deaf than in the hearing students, but more severe depression was not. In both groups, depressive symptoms were associated with perceptions of lower maternal care and higher maternal over-protection. Deaf and hearing subjects did not differ on these perceived maternal characteristics. Depressive symptoms were associated with socially dependent personality characteristics in the hearing sample only. We discuss the implications of the findings for the role of personality development in depression in deaf individuals.

Internal consistency and factor structure of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales in a sample of deaf female college students

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) is currently the most widely used measure for identifying cases of intimate partner violence within the hearing population. The CTS2 has been used successfully with individuals from various countries and cultural backgrounds. However, the CTS2 had not yet been used with Deaf individuals. The goal of the present study was to investigate the internal consistency reliability and the factor structure of the CTS2 within a sample of Deaf female college students. Psychometric analyses indicated that subscales measuring Victimization of Negotiation, Psychological Aggression, Physical Assault, and Injury proved both reliable and valid in the current sample. Three subscales did not evidence reliability and the factor structure was not valid for Perpetration items.

Mental Health Services for People Who Are Deaf

The issue of mental health services available to adults and children in the United States who are deaf is addressed. Included is a historical perspective on the changes in these services over the last 50 years. Within this scope, the current status of services is described in some detail. Psychological research on children who are deaf is reviewed, and current issues faced by school psychology and psychologists who evaluate deaf children in school settings are examined. The disturbing current trend toward the criminalization of people with mental illness, which affects both hearing and deaf adults with psychiatric diagnoses, is covered. Suggestions are made for improving mental health services for children and adults who are deaf.

Modification of the beck depression inventory for use with a deaf population

Research on depression in deaf individuals has been hampered by difficulties in assessment that result from the linguistic problems many deaf persons have with the English language. We report preliminary psychometric data on a modification of the Beck Depression Inventory in which it was simplified linguistically for use with the deaf population. Internal consistency of the revised version of 56 hearing college students was good and very close to that of the original version in a separate sample of 56 hearing students. Mean scores on the two versions were also very similar. Internal consistency of the revision in a sample of 102 deaf college students was moderately good, but lower than in the hearing sample. The results are considered encouraging for further instrument development.

Validity of the TONI-2 with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

The Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, 2nd edition (TONI-2) is a quick, practical measure of cognitive functioning. Its concurrent, construct, and predictive validity as an instrument and its utility with deaf and hard of hearing children were explored in this study. Results obtained from research with 27 deaf and hard of hearing children of elementary school age indicated a positive, moderate correlation between the TONI-2 IQ and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 3rd edition (WISC-III), Performance IQ, supporting concurrent validity. Construct validity was established by significant correlations between the TONI-2 and five of six WISC-III subtests. The TONI-2 had predictive value for Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) spelling and mathematical problem-solving and reasoning tasks.