English Summaries (02/2015)
A client orientation in making follow-up plans in psychological assessment feedbacks
The aim of this study was to examine a client orientation in making follow-up plans in psychological assessment feedback sessions. Specifically, we studied what types of interaction occur in these situations with particular interest in to what extent the interaction is client-oriented.
The research material comprised six recorded feedback sessions and related rating forms for clients and psychologists. Qualitative discursive methods were applied to the transcriptions of recordings. The study is part of a project titled Interaction in Psychological Assessment Feedback Sessions, which aims to collect basic information on these encounters.
The results showed that a client orientation is constructed collaboratively in psychological assessment feedback sessions. The following interaction categories emerged from the discussion of clients’ follow-up plans: sharing information, negotiation, unilateral interaction, motivation and persuasion. In the categories of negotiation, motivation and sharing information, the psychologists used a rich variety of interactional means and the clients participated in interaction more actively than in unilateral interaction. Rapid transitions between categories were observed. This occurred through invitations by psychologists as well as client initiative. Despite such invitations, the clients did not always participate. Clients’ interaction ratings indicated that their own active participation was not related to their experiences of the feedback utility. The psychologists’ means of interaction were more important.
While these results have potential for increasing the benefit to clients of psychological assessment feedback, they need to be supplemented by further research with a larger interaction dataset.
Keywords: psychological assessment feedback, follow-up plan, client orientation, interaction, discourse analysis, conversation analysis