Basic Information

Name: Kasey Scott
AIM: Fallinguphill286
Year: Sophomore/Junior
Major Interests: Theatre, politics, television production & community service
Tentative Minors: School psychology & Clinical/Counseling psychology
Future Plans: I plan to get a master's degree in Counselor education.

PSY 370: School Psychology (Spring 2006)

Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography

Topic Selection

After browsing through the recent online collections of Psychology in the Schools, School Psychology International, and School Psychology Review, I found that one important and interesting issue facing school psychologists is bullying. I skimmed a few articles and found that it is important to help teachers to recognize bullies and their victims in the classroom. Though the articles about bullying were ample in these three publications, I checked the thesaurus to see if I was missing anything. Indeed, the topic of "violence in the schools" is closely related. School psychologists can often help this epidemic by creating prevention programs that encourage cooperation and empathy among students. Though bullying and violence are somewhat gloomy topics, positive psychology can still be applied through the emphasis of such qualities, and school psychologists are capable of both fixing and preventing negative, violent attitudes in the learning environment. I would like the opportunity to research further the topic of school bullying/violence, and I am confident that there will be sufficient empirical articles that support any conclusions that are reached.

General Observations

I noticed through reading all ten articles and summarizing them that the authors all reached the same conclusions, for the most part. Each stressed the importance of in-school intervention. Most also made distinctions between bullies, defensive victims, and aggressive victims. One point of controversy amongst the authors was whether it was necessary to involve the entire school in bullying prevention and awareness. While some authors proved this most effective, others only involved the teachers and students in the process and arrived at significant improvements. I found it odd that although all of the articles were empirical, different conclusions could still be reached about the same topic. This taught me that although taking advice from empirically researched studies is better than just following conceptual ideas alone, even empirical data can contradict itself. The best thing to do is to look at many articles about a given topic and see what the general concensus is, and also to decide which authors conducted research with the soundest methods and highest number of participants to ensure statistical power.

In regards to statistics reporting, I noticed most authors noted correlational findings. A few reported odds ratios, but this was not as common, possibly because it is difficult for the general public to understand such regression techniques. However, from my course in Advanced Statistics this semester at Canisius, I was able to clearly interpret all results.

Overall, the annotated bibliography was very helpful. It aquainted me even more with researching journal articles and it allowed me to compare and contrast the different findings about school bullying and violence. I found it relatively easy to locate research related to the topic, as the increase in incidents of school shootings has drawn much attention to making schools safer for America's children.

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Assignment 1: I would like to interview Jody Mazur at John A. Sciole Elementary School in Lancaster with Jennifer Feary

Interview appointment:

Thursday February 9, 2006 at 2:30 interview with Jody Mazur
I accompanied Jennifer Feary to the Lancaster school district because I'm not from the area.

Interview Responses

Dr. Bayer's Questions:
The Lancaster Youth Bureau provides clothing, gifts, and food for the disadvantaged. The Child & Adolescent center is consulted for more emotional issues and family counseling, allong with the Family Support Center.
Inclusion special ed. works well. There is also a "friendship group" in which children have lunch to work on their social skills. There is an anger management group, Banana Split for children of divorces, and also "special friends" in which children are paired with college student mentors.
Tutoring and summer programs from the Youth Bureau are used, but the problem is that it becomes somewhat disconnected from the school and you don't know if children are getting the right counseling.

Student Questions
First Ms. Mazur attends a team meeting with teachers, social workers, other therapists, etc. to talk about the progress of certain students. Next, she observes and tests to qualify students for special education services. Then she typically consults with teachers, making suggestions about how to handle students with special needs. Frequently, there are parent conferences about test results and also consultation with those directing special education about modifying IEPs, etc.
School psychologists only spend 10 days on the job over the summer, which involves voluntary testing. Teachers can recommend summer special education for students, but none are seen for counseling by the school over the summer.
Ms. Mazur encounters learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, social issues, divorce, behavioral problems, and autism most frequently.
Some children with lower functioning are untestable, and others can be tested but not enough time with a school psychologist is available. Also, some children are emotionally disturbed so they need smaller classrooms elsewhere. In such cases, students can be sent to BOCES in other districts, ASPIRE, Gateway, and other more specialized programs.
Ms. Mazur noted that parents are often upset about their children with learning disabilities, and she has encountered some who refuse to take their children to counseling. However, school psychologists can force cooperation by threating to involve Child Services. Additionally, school psychologist must sometimes give children advice about how to deal with their parents. There are also some resistant teachers; they tend to have less tolerance for behavioral problems compared to learning disabilities. School psychologists must compromise with teachers by giving them ideas for behavior plans, but letting them make these plans most effective for their classrooms.
The job can be stressful and emotional, and Ms. Mazur says it creates a pessimistic and cautious attitude when dealing with children of her own.
Ms. Mazur recieved a B.A. from Canisius College and later earned her Master's in School Psychology and Certificate of Advanced Study from Alfred University.
It was fairly easy for Ms. Mazur to find a job after graduate school. She was offered a job in Buffalo at first, but then an opportunity opened up at Lancaster, where she had interned earlier, so she decided to work there.
Ms. Mazur said that it depends on one's personality. There are many different activities in which a school psychologist must participate, so one must be able to "switch gears" and also have a "thick skin" while dealing with parents.


I found the interview with Jody Mazur to be extremely helpful and informative. Ms. Mazur was very friendly, and I was surprised at how enthusastic she was about her career. With only 12 questions, she took close to an hour to shed her knowledge! I thought the intervention programs such as "Special Friends" and "Banana Splits" were interesting to hear about, and I enjoyed the playful environment of an elementary school. I'm also glad that Ms. Mazur talked about the personality needed for the job-- I had never considered the fact that it can sometimes be unstructured with the many responsibilities along with emergencies that come up. However, Ms. Mazur made it seem like there was never a dull moment, which is certainly a positive aspect of the career.


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Spring2006
Psy370Spring2006
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