School counselor assessment and career planning for first-generation college students

Counseling Sophia: Ethics and Assessments

Abstract
A junior in high school, Sophia seeks counseling to explore her options for college and careers. Because she would be the first in her family to receive a higher education, Sophia has few role models and stands to benefit tremendously from the counseling process. The school counselor operates within the framework of ethical principles that guide best practices, including the commitment to the student’s well-being and confidentiality, and to cross-cultural awareness. Using assessments is integral to the school counseling process, but the assessments should be deliberately selected, scored and interpreted appropriately, and norm-tested for representative population samples. For Sophia, the recommended assessments include a symptom checklist (Sympton Checklist-90-Revised), a personality assessment (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Adolescent version (MMPI-A), and an interests inventory (Strong Interest Inventory). When the results of these assessments are taken collectively and used in conjunction with interviews with Sophia, her family, and her teachers, the counselor can offer the student information that can help her refine her goals during her senior year. Options for career planning may also include the exploration of early college credit and advanced placement classes, internships, and mentoring.

Counseling Sophia: Ethics and Assessments
Sophia is a high achiever with strong grades and a positive attitude. Eager to attend college in spite of lackluster support from her family, Sophia is also independent and brims with self-determination given her taking the initiative to seek counseling at school. Her performance in school has been exemplary, with only positive comments from her teachers. Sophia’s primary presenting problems include her lack of direction or focus. Without her family’s encouragement, Sophia has yet to determine what areas of interest she can or should pursue more in depth to be better prepared for college and a future career path.
A counselor working with Sophia can use a number of different assessment tools at first, to help Sophia learn more about her strengths and interests. Symptom checklists, although commonly used for suspected psychological disorders, can nevertheless be helpful in ruling out any unforeseen issues that may impede Sophia’s ability to plan and strategize. Personality assessments are also critical in school counseling, which requires familiarity with various theories of personality and how to apply those theories to best practices (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 2012). School counselors are often at liberty to choose the assessments they believe most applicable to the particular student, based on factors like health status and background, culture, presenting symptoms, areas of practice qualifications and competencies, and budgetary constraints. However, the school district or administrator might offer a set of preferred instruments to better standardize results within their population. In Sophie’s case, a widely used personality assessment inventory like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) may be warranted given the student’s relative lack of self-awareness.
Finally, one of the most crucial roles of the school counselor is in the realm of career planning and mapping. While far from being definitive, assessments like the Strong Interests Inventory can help the counselor and the student to recognize strengths and interests with the goal of clarifying possible career pathways and the interim steps that need to be taken to achieve those goals (Iowa School Counselor Association, 2018). Her junior year is a critical time for Sophia to decide whether or not to take additional advanced placement courses, engage in internship opportunities, or apply for early enrollment in the colleges of her choice. The school counselor has an ethical responsibility to offer the student as many tools necessary for her success. According to the American School Counselor Association (2010) code of ethics, “each person has the right to receive the information and support needed to move toward self-direction and self-development and affirmation,” (Preamble, p. 1). To what degree can Sophia’s parents and other family members become more involved in her career planning or more supportive of her dreams?
Primary Questions
Who is Sophia? What is Sophia passionate about, interested in, and also good at? What type of working environment does she prefer? Does Sophia prefer a large university campus or a small college setting? Given Sophia’s goals and areas of interest, will she benefit from additional dual-credit/advanced placement coursework or an internship? Are there any community-based organizations or opportunities that will help Sophia, such as mentoring programs? What are Sophia’s favorite extracurricular activities? What are her strengths and weaknesses, not just in in terms of academics but also social skills? These are the types of questions that will guide counseling practice with Sophia. To answer these questions, the counselor can rely on several strategies, including standardized assessments. Standardized assessments can and should be used in conjunction with clinical interviews, to provide the most ethical and equitable approach for Sophia.
Three Assessment Tools
Symptom Checklist
Symptom checklists like the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and the Child Behavior Checklist are typically self-report measures administered to “measure psychological symptoms and psychological distress,” (Derogatis & Unger, 2010). The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised consists of 90 items, each of which uses a five-point self-rating scale that can be scored manually or electronically (Derogatis, 1994). Because the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised requires only fifteen minutes to administer, it is especially feasible in situations with time constraints like school counseling, without sacrificing validity and reliability. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised has been norm tested and applies to diverse populations (Smits, Timmerman, Barelds, et al., 2014). Although Sophia has no presenting symptoms that would indicate a pathology like a mood disorder or attention deficit disorder, a symptom checklist is still advisable in order to rule out any possible issues impeding Sophia from achieving her goals.
Sophia does not have any presenting symptoms that indicate a serious underlying psychiatric condition, and nor does the student exhibit signs of distress. Nevertheless, Sophia is aware that she lacks direction, and is susceptible to being influenced by her family members who may want to live vicariously through her. A symptom checklist might indicate whether Sophia is prone to internalizing feelings of pressure or strain, and help her to resolve potential conflicts before they arise or become problematic. The use of a symptom checklist is not to project pathology or to presume that Sophia has a behavioral or psychiatric disorder, but simply to rule out that possibility to make sure the student receives the most appropriate and evidence-based counseling interventions. A counselor needs to keep in mind the intended purpose of the symptom checklist and not misconstrue the results. In fact, her teachers have only positive feedback and Sophia’s grades and test scores are high. A symptom checklist can still be helpful in Sophia’s case, to illuminate any underlying issues that may be at stake in her current decision to seek counseling.
For example, it is possible that Sophia’s lack of direction may be an early sign of depression, anxiety, or interpersonal sensitivity, all of which are dimensions included in the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (Derogatis & Unger, 2010). Because of its ability to assess symptoms along nine different dimensions, it may help the counselor to identify areas of concern without making any broad assumptions or generalizations about Sophia (Derogatis & Unger, 2010). Furthermore, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised “reflects the specific primary symptoms reasonably well, with high reliability,” making it an ethical choice in school counseling settings (Smits, Timmerman, Barelds, et al., 2014, p. 263). The school counselor needs to use a symptom checklist that is firmly grounded in empirical data, applicable to diverse populations including having norm testing relevant to Sophie’s background, and then to openly share the results with Sophia. If the symptom checklist were to reveal a potential problem, the school counselor has an ethical duty to maintain Sophia’s confidentiality and privacy, working with the student to discuss possible interventions.
Personality Assessment
School counselors also use appropriate personality assessments to help students like Sophia find direction and clarify her goals. Personality assessments reflect various theories of personality development, of which school counselors should be familiar and able to apply in the clinical setting (Shafer, 1995). One of the most widely used and established personality assessments is the MMPI.
The MMPI adolescent version (MMPI-A) is indicated in the school counseling setting (Archer & Smith, 2014). The MMPI-A has been thoroughly norm-tested and validated, which is why it remains a standard instrument in school counseling (Archer & Smith, 2014). Although it is relatively lengthy, consisting of almost 500 items and taking about an hour to administer, the MMPI-A has been vetted to a degree that most other personality assessments have not (Graham, Archer, Tellegen, et al., 2006). Norm testing on diverse adolescent populations has been robust since the initial development of the MMPI in the 1960s, and can be used for intake assessments, treatment planning, and overall cognitive functioning (Archer & Smith, 2014). While the MMPI-A can be used for assessing pathologies, it can also be administered in a more general school counseling setting to determine the client’s strengths, helping Sophia to become more self-aware. Because of its strong levels of construct validity in terms of measuring specific personality determinants related to her identity and self-concept, the MMPI-A is the most appropriate assessment for Sophia. The MMPI-A has high construct validity for personality elements like self-esteem, anxiety, trust, and various other elements that may not be immediately apparent to teachers, family members, or the counselor (Graham, Archer, Tellegen, et al., 2006). For example, the counselor does not know much about Sophia other than her good grades and test scores. Her social skills and adaptability are also critical components in determining her future outcomes.
Because Sophia is the first in her family to consider attending college, she may face unique social pressures. Personality tests may show Sophia’s tendencies in externalizing or internalizing, in perceiving or judging the impressions of others and forming her opinions of herself or her roles in society. Assessments like the MMPI-A can also be used to show how Sophia copes with stress, and the radical change of leaving her home and attending university. The MMPI-A results should not be interpreted with a deterministic view, but one that acknowledges that the results are one of many indicators to help Sophia learn more about herself and how to find more direction in her life. If Sophia has tendencies towards avoidance or being socially withdrawn, then the MMPI-A could show this, allowing Sophia and her counselor to offer interventions throughout the counseling process.
Additional Assessments
The Strong Interest Inventory is one of the school counselor’s most reliable and valid assessment tools (Harris & Rottinghaus, 2015). Specifically designed for use in career counseling, the Strong Interest Inventory will help Sophia better identify what her core interests are, with the goal of helping her to focus on specific subject areas and prepare for college and/or a future career. As the name of the assessment suggests, the Strong Interest inventory is designed to measure interests alone, not other constructs like aptitude or intelligence. Therefore, the Strong Interest Inventory can help a well-rounded, strong student like Sophia narrow down her college choices to focus on what she is most likely to be passionate about. Identifying her core interests will help Sophia to know whether or not to take advanced placement courses in her senior year, look into mentoring or internship opportunities in specific careers, or to apply to specific programs as an undergraduate student. The Strong Interest Inventory also helps Sophia and her counselor understand her personal predilections and preferences in terms of working independently or in teams. Research into the efficacy of the Strong Interest Inventory also shows that the assessment helps individuals to craft career paths that promote subjective well-being, making this tool valuable for fulfilling the ethical objectives of school counseling (Harris & Rottinghaus, 2015).
The Strong Interest Inventory was first developed in 1927, and adaptations have been made to improve construct validity (“About the Strong Interest Inventory,” n.d.). The assessment measures several different constructs including general fields of occupational interest and personal styles that can then be paired with categories of careers. A school counselor does need to use the Strong Interest Inventory accurately and with great sensitivity to diverse needs and expectations, also taking into account the fact that the inventory cannot possibly account for the full gamut of career options available to Sophia. For example, new media and technology present ever-evolving career options; the counselor needs to stay abreast of the wide variations in career options available in an increasingly globalized society.
Just as the results of the Strong Interest Inventory should be interpreted accordingly, the counselor also has an ethical duty to keep the results of the assessment confidential while speaking honestly with Sophia about her scores (American School Counselor Association, 2010). When administering an assessment like the Strong Interest Inventory, the counselor may also want to explore Sophia’s family background, taking into account the fact that her parents wish for her to pursue their interests and may have influenced Sophia’s self-concept. Sophia is strongly aware that she has yet to develop interests of her own; this assessment will help reveal what those areas of interests may be and how she can pursue them in her senior year and beyond. Like the MMPI-A, the Strong Interest Inventory is fairly lengthy, requiring about 45 minutes to complete and including almost 300 items. Therefore, the counselor should understand that these two assessments should form part of the long-term strategy with Sophia rather than overwhelming the student with too many assessments at once.
The Strong Interest Inventory reveals specific personality constructs, with broad categories including Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Thus, the results of this assessment can be combined with the MMPI-A to offer more complex insight into Sophia’s strengths. The Basic Interest Scales section of the Strong Interest Inventory shows what extracurricular or academic courses capture Sophia’s attention, but the counselor should also speak directly with Sophia about her perceptions of these subjects in relation to her teachers and her background. Occupational scales include more than a hundred different possible career paths, which only scratches the surface in terms of what is out there and what options Sophia has based also on the results of the Personal Styles Scale. The Strong Interest Inventory can help Sophia differentiate between her own passions and those projected upon her by her family members.
Because Sophia is concerned about differentiating her interests from those of her family, the counselor can and should use the Strong Interest Inventory throughout the school counseling process, and not just during intake. The counselor can work with Sophia during her junior and senior years, offering ongoing feedback, and also assessing any changes to her results. The Strong Interest Inventory will also help Sophia to identify possible career paths she had not considered due to the narrow nature of high school curricula.