Co-Construction of Narrative in the Psychological Assessment of Children.

N

21

Case Studies; Characterization; Children; Literary Genres; Literary Styles; Objectivity; Personality; Psychological Evaluation; Psychological Studies; Psychological Testing; Psychology; Reader Text Relationship; Reports; Story Grammar; Story Telling; Written Language

The psychological report is a particular genre of writing, incorporating elements of content and style shared by other literary genres, and appearing in many different forms. These forms range from terse, profile driven description of strengths and weaknesses, characteristic of computer generated psychological reports, to more descriptive, integrative accounts which more closely approach the narrative structure of literary works. This paper describes: (1) the development of subject in psychological evaluation of children from dual perspectives of literary narrative and psychological assessment; (2) the development and portrayal of the story of the child's life, including events of developmental growth, family, and schooling, from both narrative structure and framework of psychological testing and report writing; (3) the contribution of the psychologist to the construction of the narrative of a child's life as told within the body of the psychological report; and (4) the relationship of the reader to text from both a literary perspective and from perspectives of psychological evaluation and report writing. This shift from psychologist as unmasker of objective truth to participant in construction of narrative may be viewed within the context of epistemological shifts from scientific positivism socially constructed viewpoint. (Author/JBJ)

1996

ED387725