In my ideal career, I am working with children at either an elementary or middle school
level. As the school counselor, my job will be to understand what is potentially holding children
back in their academics, social skills or psychologically. In order to acknowledge the child’s
current development progress and understand where they are lacking, psychological assessments
and educational assessments will be an essential tool in this line of service. Once I am working
as a school counselor in the future, a likely real world application might be behavioral
observation. This type of assessment is frequently used by researchers in classroom settings.
Behavioral observation is defined by our textbook as “monitoring the actions of others or oneself
by visual or electronic means while recording quantitative and/or qualitative information
regarding those actions” (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2017, p. 13). Although most of my time is spent in
directed practice, I am allowed to observe many behaviors and record reactions under several
different scenarios. These direct observations enable me to discover which behaviors need to be
targeted and I can relay my observations to the correct staff members at school and come up with
plans of intervention. I believe that psychological assessments are designed to help the person
who is struggling, therefore, Christian professionals should feel confident that this tool is
biblically supported. When the person administering the test has a deep yearning to help those
struggling and seeks to offer support, this is an act of love. There must be a certain level of
respect for the person’s struggle and a desire to honor each client’s individuality. We are all
made in God’s image, but we are each unique, with our own weaknesses and strengths. “We who
are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us
should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Romans 15:1-2, New International
Version). Assessments are performed in order to help us better understand how to help those in
need, I find this act to be biblical.
Reference
Cohen, R. J. & Swerdlik, M. E. (2017). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to
tests and measurement (9th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 9781259870507.
