PSY/435
April 29, 2013
Karen Bedell
School Psychologist Job Analysis
A job analysis is used to assess and describe jobs and the characteristics that would be most suited for that job; these are usually conducted by an industrial/organizational psychologist. To gather this information either a job-oriented, a person-oriented approach, or a combination of both is utilized. The job-oriented approach is used to describe the tasks that are necessary to complete a particular job. In contrast, the person-oriented approach gathers information about the characteristics someone would need to possess to effectively do the job in question; this includes gathering information about the knowledge, abilities, skills, and other personal characteristics (e.g. being organized) an individual would need to be most effective in the job being analyzed. This paper will analyze the job of a school psychologist using the task inventory job analysis method. The information gathered from a job analysis can be used for numerous purposes, but for the purpose of this paper only selection and vocational counseling will be discussed. It will then go on to discuss objective and subjective measures used to appraise an individual’s performance in being a school psychologist. It will finally discuss the pros and cons of these appraisal methods.
Gathering Information for a Job Analysis
Information for a job analysis can be gathered in numerous ways by various people. Information can be gathered by a job analysts, a supervisor, the person who holds the position be analyzed, or by trained observers (Spector, 2008). The various methods used to collect this information from one of the four people previously mentioned include preforming the job, observing the employees at work, interviewing the supervisor or the person that holds the job, or administering a questionnaire; these methods can also be combined so that the limitations of one method can be countered
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