School Psychology International

Historical Background Chinese psychological thought may be traced as far back as the time of 500 BC. The great Chinese philosopher and educator, Confucius (551-479 BC), was one of the first scholars to discuss the essence of human nature and how it may be modified through education. About 150 years later, a systematic theory stressing that the mind is the product of the body, and that the endowment of human nature can be modified by external influences, was developed by the philosophers, Xun Zi and Mencius. Confucius first classified people, on the basis of their intelligence, into three categories: People of 'great wisdom', people of 'average intelligence', and people of 'little intelligence'. Confucius also made statements of personality assessments as a guideline for educating them. Confucius said that 'as student Qui is timid, we should give him a lot of encouragement; while student Yiu is aggressive, discouragement is then needed'. All these sayings clearly indicate the advanced and perceptive thinking of differential psychology and of individualized education in ancient China.

A perspective on moral development is presented which suggests a stage model involving prerequisites and critical periods. The relationship between children's intellectual structures; knowledge, skills, and experiences; personality traits; physical maturity; and emotional state, interactively function with existing moral structures to influence moral development.

This review examines the current status and future directions of educational psychology in Hong Kong. General and special education, the development of the educational psychology programme and the training, regulation and continuing education of educational psychologists are described. Typical services and research performed by these psychologists are also presented. Problems encountered by this profession are raised and future directions are predicted. Finally, possible future changes in educational psychology resulting from the return of Hong Kong from Britain to the People's Republic of China in 1997 are discussed briefly.

In this study the Culture Fair Test was administered to a sample of 9-year-old Clhinese children in Hong Kong. The sample was matched for socioeconomic status (SES) to the Hong Kong population. The mean IQ of the sample was 113. This figure needs adjustment for the time interval between the two test standardizations and for comparison with American white children. The effect of these adjustments is to reduce the mean IQ of the Hong Kong children to 104.5.

This paper presents a brief history of the major developments in school neuropsychology in India. Dealt with here are the problems of neurologically deficient children, current educational practices, remedial and diagnostic efforts and the need for interdisciplinary research and publications, education and training. A view about future directions is also presented. There is a paucity of empirical research studying the neurological mechanisms and their interaction with the school setting in India. However, a beginning has been made in the area of mental retardation. There is an urgent need to focus on the neurological aspects of normal school children. This would provide an insight into how educational environments affect neurological developments. A case is made for encouraging interdisciplinary research to understand the neuroeducational aspects of a child's personality and behaviour.

This paper draws striking parallels between the current anti-test campaign waged in Israel and the test controversy in the USA, which peaked in the late 1970s. In addition, the ramifications of the recent test controversy for the professional role and future functioning of Israeli school psychologists are discussed.

The scores of 70 learning disabled (LD), 47 emotionally disturbed (ED) and 24 intellectually handicapped (IH) children were compared on the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC). The data were submitted to a series of 2 x 2 x 3 ANOVAs. The results indicated that the IH group was differentiated from the others on PIC scales reflecting cognitive weaknesses (Intellectual Screening and Development) and limited reality testing (Psychosis), and that the ED group was discriminated from the LD group on scales which predict general maladjustment (Adjustment) and from the IH group on scales which predict hyperactive behavior (Hyperactivity). When the protocols were analyzed using actuarial guidelines, the majority of children in all three groups showed significant elevations on scales intended to measure cognitive deficits and general maladaptive behavior (e.g. 100 percent of the IH group had significant scores on the Intellectual Screening and Development scales; a similarly high proportion of ED children had marked elevations on the Adjustment scale). It was actually the degree of scale elevation relative to the remaining profile which defined each group.

This paper describes one way of exploring the attitudes of professional educators towards the integration of students with learning difficulties. The viewpoints of a group of educational psychologists are inspected by way of illustration. It is suggested that this approach could form the basis for in-service training sessions with teachers and a means by which psychological services and other professional groups could begin to plan integration policies.

Representative groups of English (n = 20) and Australian (n = 34) school psychologists were asked to complete the School Psychologists and Stress Inventory (SPSI) and their responses compared with those of a larger but more disparate US sample. Similar levels of stress were reported in all three countries but specific differences as well as similarities were found in the identification of sources of stress. Some possible reasons for these differences are speculated and the strengths and weaknesses of the questionnaire approach to stress is discussed.

The publication in the United Kingdom in 1978 of the Warnock Report (Department of Education and Science, 1978) provided a landmark in the development of both resources for and conceptualization of children with special educational needs. Not only did it provide the basis for legislation in the form of the 1981 Education Act, but it also altered the way in which the issue of special education was viewed. For present purposes, the major aspect was the assertion that about one in six children would have special educational needs at any one time, and about one in five sometime during their school lives.

This article describes how an in-service course for educational psychologists led to the development of a package of flexible materials designed to help teachers reduce disruptive behaviour. The history of the package, known as Preventive Approaches to Disruption (PAD), is outlined within the context of a particular form of advanced professional training. The underlying assumptions of PAD are made clear and its contents described together with some suggested ways in which the package may be used. The article ends with a discussion of the value of this kind of approach to the work of educational psychologists with schools.