The problem of stagnant psychological reports

Today, I present a single article but one that I think is important. Eriksen & Cormier (2024) published “Considering Ethical Obligations to Overcome Stagnant Psychological Report-Writing Practices” in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.  Here are the abstract and impact statements with slight editing and some information in bold:

Psychologists have a duty of care to provide accurate evaluation results for the clients they serve. This expectation also includes communicating the results and related treatment recommendations in an understandable manner for the referred client, as well as those involved in their care. Despite these obligations, psychologists generally produce reports that are not as helpful as they could be. Consumers of psychological reports (e.g., parents, teachers, third parties, etc.) find reports to be difficult to understand and not very useful. The limited research on psychological report writing available shows considerable variability among clinicians and many issues contributing to poor readability and overall quality (e.g., generic recommendations, jargon, focus on test scores, time involved, etc.). Thus, psychologists could be doing more to uphold their professional and ethical responsibilities to write understandable, meaningful, and useful reports; however, there is little indication of improvement in any of these areas over the past few decades. As such, we aim to highlight psychologists’ professional and ethical obligations to encourage growth. In this review, we discuss the current issues in psychological report writing, possible contributing factors, and the ethical principles involved in report writing. We also offer recommendations for psychologists and professional psychology training programs who wish to improve their practices in this core domain of professional practice. 

This review article outlines current practice issues in psychological assessment reports and highlights psychologists’ ethical obligations to encourage change. Additionally, research-based recommendations are provided for psychologists and professional psychology training programs to improve their report-writing practices. 

I love this article for several reasons. First, they identify common problems in psychological reports of poor readability, generic recommendations, jargon, focus on test scores, etc. Second, they emphasize that the readers of such reports – parents, teachers, medical and mental health professionals, and a variety of third parties who may be reading a report months or years after the evaluation – deserve to be able to understand the findings and their implications. Third, they identify this as an ethical issue – a duty of care. Finally, they note that the issue is stagnancy – little change in report writing over the past few decades. This is an important study and one indication of the value Haccah may offer professionals.