Assessment of Personality

Question 1

What are traits, states and types

Answer 1

*Traits - enduring and relatively permanent personality characteristics that are distinguished along a trait continuum *State - a temporary behavioural tendency usually in reaction to an internal or environmental stimuli (e.g., a student may be in an anxious state prior to an exam) *Type - general description of an individual into a distinct category (e.g., introverted or extraverted).

Question 2

Difference between tests and assessments

Answer 2

• Testing = straightforward process where a descriptive meaning can be applied to the score (e.g. IQ of 100 = average intelligence). Benefit of normative bases and standardised administration procedures - Assessment = focus is on taking a variety of test-derived pieces of info, obtained from multiple methods, and placing these in the context of historical info, referral info and behavioural observations to generate a cohesive and comprehensive understanding of the person. Require high degree of skill and sophistication

Question 3

5 Purposes of Personality Assessment

Answer 3

1. To describe psychopathology and obtain a differential diagnosis.
2. to describe and predict everyday behaviour
3. to inform psychological treatment
4. to monitor treatment
5. to use personality assessment as a treatment

Question 4

What is the Therapeutic Assessment Model (TA)?

Answer 4

• developed to increase the utility of personality assessment and feedback by making assessment and feedback a therapeutic endeavour.
• Humanistic Psych, Fischer (1994, 2000)
• TA views assessment as a collaborative endeavour in which the client and the assessor work together to arrive at a deeper understanding of the client’s personality, interpersonal dynamics, and present difficulties.
• Client is an active collaborator in mutual process. Assessor discuses (rather than delivers) results with client

Question 5

What are the two types of personality assessment?

Answer 5

• Performance-based (“projective”) tests
• Self report (“objective” measures)

Question 6

What are Performance-based (“projective”) tests?

Answer 6

• unstructured response format
• responses can be as long or short as participant likes
• defined by projective hypothesis
• less structured
• When a measure is administered and scored according to such standardized procedures, we can rightly consider that measure a test.
• Conversely, if a measure does not necessarily have a standardized administration and scoring procedure, it is more accurate to think of that measure as a technique.
• e.g. Rorschach inkblot (test) and TAT (technique)

Question 7

What are self report (“objective” measures)?

Answer 7

o simply ask a respondent to answer a series of questions about himself or herself.

o different types of response formats and question styles depending on the purposes of the test

o two categories: omnibus and narrow-band .

Question 8

What are omnibus and narrow minded measures?

Answer 8

• Omnibus measures
  
  • are those that assess multiple domains of personality, psychopathology, or functioning. E.g. Personality assessment inventory (PAI)
• Narrow-band measure.
  
  • Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale measure that purports only to measure facets of self-esteem

Although there are some exceptions, an omnibus measure will allow for the broad screening of individual characteristics and psychopathology, while a narrow-band self-report measure might be more suited to measure a few characteristics in-depth.

Question 9

What is behavioural assessment

Answer 9

• o is often considered separately from personality assessment because of its focus on overt behaviours as opposed to internal dispositions and tendencies.
• However behavioural assessment vital to understand client’s overt behaviour
• Can be omnibus or narrow band

Question 10

How long are psych assessments for adoption?

Answer 10

• 12-14 hours
• conducted in client’s home
• reports usually 25-30 pages

Question 11

Factors for successful overseas adoption

Answer 11

• sound reasons for adoption
• resolved grief over troubled fertility histories and associated losses
• flexible attitudes towards parenting
• sensitivity and responsiveness to the needs of children.

Question 12

Qualities of suitable parents for adoption

Answer 12

• open to new experiences
• willing to consider what ever challenges an adopted child may bring
• flexibility of child meeting academic standards and social norms
• high emotional stability and maturity
• culturally sensitive and aware

Question 13

what is a measure of positive impression management?

Answer 13

Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding

Question 14

what can marital stability and parenting knowledge be assessed by?

Answer 14

Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the PASS.

Question 15

What did Aristotle theorise personality to be understood from?

Answer 15

• personality could be understood from a standpoint of physiognomy
• the idea that physical traits could be informative about personality.
• Size of one’s eyes, lips, and eyebrows were thought to convey information about criminality, virtue, and thoughtfulness.

Question 16

What is the phrenology movement?

Answer 16

• Franz Josef Gall (early 1800s)
• phrenology consisted of “reading” the contours in the skull in order to discern personality traits and attributes.

Question 17

What is Carl Jung’s personality test?

Answer 17

• Jung credited with creating the first “modern” personality test.
• His ASSOCIATION method was a standardized list of words to which psychiatric patients were asked to free-associate, or to say whatever came to mind.
• Jung provided interpretation guidelines by which responses could be judged and understood What made this different from prior methods of assessing personality was its reliance on standardized administration and a data-based method of interpretation.

Question 18

What was a central feature of Hathaway and McKinley’s approach to the creation of the MMPI?

Answer 18

• The use of the criterion keying method, or contrasting group method.
• In this approach, the test constructor selects items based upon the observed or empirical relationship between item endorsement and membership in external criterion groups.

Question 19

What is sequential strategy?

Answer 19

• • Jackson (1970) -
• based on a combination of content validation, internal consistency, and criterion keying
• the resulting preliminary scales are validated by comparing scores on these scales through the use of appropriate external criterion measures.
• used by Jackson in developing the Personality Research Form (PRF) in 1974, and a more recent example of these sequential strategies can be found in the MMPI-2 content scales

Question 20

What are the four major psych theories/models for personality assessment?

Answer 20

(i) psychodynamic theory,
(ii) behavioural and social learning theories,
(iii) humanistic theory,
(iv) trait models.

Question 21

What is psychodynamic theory?

Answer 21

• Freud (1914)
• mind is an energy system with more than 1 level of consciousness
  
  • (the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious).
• personality is believed to be shaped by instinctive drives,
  
  • such as eros (life/sexual instinct) and
  • Thanatos (death and the aggressive instinct).
• Hence personality assessments and interventions developed by psychodynamic professionals focus on drawing out unconscious and preconscious aspects of personality.

Question 22

What are the conscious levels of psychodynamic theory?

Answer 22

• ID (unconscious level):
  
  • basic impulses, seeking immediate gratification, irrational and impulsive.
• Superego (preconscious level):
  
  • ideals and morals, striving for perfection, incorporated from parents, becoming someone’s conscious.
• Ego (conscious level):
  
  • executive mediating between ID and super ego, testing reality, rational.

Question 23

What is eros and thanatos?

Answer 23

Instinctive drives Eros (life and sexual instinct)

Thanatos (death and aggressive instinct)

Question 24

What is the Behavioural and Social Learning Theories?

Answer 24

• behaviour is learned via classical and operant conditioning, and also through vicarious conditioning and observational learning (i.e., modelling)
• Reciprocal determinism (Bandura) - acknowledges the reciprocal influences of behaviour, environment, and personal/cognitive factors -
• Personality assessments and interventions are focused on conscious, present-oriented learned behaviours. - reinforcement is said to reinforce our personality (e.g., anxious personalities)

Question 25

What is the humanistic theory?

Answer 25

• asserts that people are fundamentally good, and that they constantly strive towards higher levels of functioning.
• Maslows hierarchy of needs
• The actualising tendency is the drive of every organism to fulfil its biological potential and become what it is inherently capable of becoming.
• Hence personality assessments and interventions focus less on standardised assessments and instead focus on seeking narrative information from clients about how they perceive themselves.

Question 26

What is trait theory?

Answer 26

• focuses on identifying and describing individual differences in personality in terms of traits.
• There are numerous trait models (e.g., Raymond Cattell’s 16PF, Hans Eysenck’s PEN)
• most are derived via factor analysis.
• The five factor model/big five (Costa & McCrae, 1985), is one of the most popular trait models and is based on the premise that there are five basic dimensions of personality (OCEAN)
• Hence, personality assessments and interventions emphasise questionnaire scores for each trait as a combined indication of one’s unique personality constellation.

Question 27

Types of personality assessment

Answer 27

• Projective personality assessments:
  
  • Typically associated with psychodynamic models, where the individual is said to project their unconscious dynamics onto the test materials.
• Psychometric personality assessments:
  
  • Representative of trait models, where individuals complete a battery of tests and results are summed to indicate aspects of personality
• Behaviour rating scales:
  
  • Typically associated with social learning models, where individuals (clients, teachers, parents, etc.) complete standardised scales to rate aspects of behaviour, such as aggression in a classroom setting.
• Clinical interview:
  
  • A feature for humanistic models but not limited to these practitioners, which involves seeking information from clients directly using either an unstructured or semi-structured interview. Clinical interviews can be supplemented by any/all of the other 3 forms of personality assessment.

Question 28

What are the key questions to ask when evaluating a test?

Answer 28

Question 29

What is a latent variable?

Answer 29

• the construct measured by a test
• issues of consistency are often contingent upon the latent variable to be measured. For example, some latent variables are rapidly fluctuating “states” (e.g., mood, satiety, fatigue) whereas some will be more consistent “traits” (e.g., extroversion, coping resources, narcissism). Therefore, we would expect measures of states to be less consistent than traits over longer periods of time.

Question 30

what is reliability?

Answer 30

• indication of its consistency across time and circumstance.

Question 31

What is test score reliability concerned with?

Answer 31

• temporal consistency (score consistency across time)
• internal consistency (the degree to which test items are consistent with one another to measure the same construct)
• interrater consistency (the degree to which two or more independent raters can use the same test and arrive at similar results).

Question 32

What is temporal consistency

Answer 32

temporal consistency

• score consistency across time)
  
  • measured through test-retest (.8 corco).
  • to reduce practice effects can do alternate form reliability (but rare)

Question 33

What is internal consistency?

Answer 33

• the degree to which test items are consistent with one another to measure the same construct
  
  • split-half reliability (halving the test and checking reliability of constructs)
  • Cronbach’s coefficient alpha (average estimate of all possible split-half reliabilities for a given group of items. .70 = adequate, .80 = good.

Question 34

What is interrater consistency?

Answer 34

• the degree to which two or more independent raters can use the same test and arrive at similar results
  
  • Shrout and Fleiss’s (1979) intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) are a series of six correlations that can be computed based on certain rater and test characteristics. The formulas are based on three models that vary in their assumption of rater independence:
    
    • one-way random effects model assumes that the raters are a random selection of all possible raters who rate all the targets of interest
    • two-way random effects model assumes a random selection of raters and targets.
    • two-way mixed model assumes that all possible judges rate a random selection of targets.
    • Typically, .74 or above reflects good agreement.
• the appropriate statistic for dichotomous interrater reliability is Cohen’s kappa. K=
  
  • kappa is an estimate of agreement between two raters accounting for chance agreement.
  • Most appropriate for those measures where raters must decide that score or behaviour is either present or not present, kappa is generally acceptable when above .70.

Question 35

What is validity?

Answer 35

• Validity refers to the evidence of the quality of that translation from a theoretical latent variable to test format (accuracy)
• can refer to as construct validity

Question 36

What is translational validity?

Answer 36

• Translation validity (quality)
  
  • the class of validity analyses that seek to examine the quality of the basic translation of a latent variable into a test format.
  • Content validity refers to the completeness of the translation of the latent variable into the test format.
  • Face validity refers to the extent to which a test appears to the test taker to measure the construct of interest.

Question 37

what is Criterion related validity

Answer 37

Criterion related validity (validating against external marker)

• One crucial consideration in criterion-related validity studies is the quality of the criterion chosen
• Concurrent validity
  
  • comparing the results of a measure with some external measurement that was taken at nearly the same time.
• Predictive validity
  
  • involves the comparison of a test against an external measure that was taken at a date later than the test administration
• Convergent validity
  
  • refers to examining the relationship between a test score and another measure of the same construct in a given population.
  • often involves comparing a new measure with a previously established measure or measures.
• Discriminant validity (divergent validity)
  
  • involves comparing a new test score to previously established measures of constructs to which the new measure is unlikely to be related.

Question 38

What is Clinical utility validity?

Answer 38

• (useful) the clinical utility of a measure lies in its ease of use, time investment, and acceptability of the construct to be measured.
• Incremental validity
  
  • refers to the ability of a measure to add a new form of information or improve classification accuracy over and above another established measure of the same construct.
• diagnostic efficiency relates to the ability of a diagnostic test to correctly classify a group of individuals into diagnostic groups.

Question 39

• Sensitivity and specificity

Answer 39

• Sensitivity refers to the probability that a person known to have a particular disorder will test positive for that disorder on the measure in question. If a measure is low in sensitivity, there is a greater likelihood of underidentification of a disorder
• Specificity is the probability that an individual without a psychiatric disorder will test negative for that disorder. If a measure is low in specificity, there is a greater likelihood of overidentification of a disorder (Type I error).

Question 40

• Positive and negative predictive power

Answer 40

• Calculations of positive and negative predictive power are used to address the question of clinical pre- diction.
• Positive predictive power (PPP) is defined as the percentage of individuals that test positive who truly have the disorder.
• Conversely, negative predictive power (NPP) is the percentage of individuals testing negative who truly do not have the disorder.

Question 41

What are Projective Personality Assessments

Answer 41

• projective test is a personality test that assesses how an individual responds to ambiguous stimuli.
• The individual’s responses are believed to reveal hidden emotions and internal conflicts that are projected by the person onto the test
• includes;
  
  • Rorschach Inkblot Test
  • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
  • projective drawings
  • play therapy and sand trays

Question 42

Rorschach inkblot test

Answer 42

• series of ambiguous stimuli figures made from inkblots, and their explanations about these are recorded and analysed.
• The most widely used projective personality test in the 1960’s, the Exner Scoring System was later developed to refute earlier criticisms that interpretation of Rorschach Test results reflected poor reliability and validity coefficients.
• A further criticism of this test is difficulty in creating norms.
• 10 items –> meaning potential invalidation of results for those tested on more on the one occasion.

Question 43

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Answer 43

• developed by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan in the 1930’s
• comprises 32 black and white picture cards.
• The psychologist presents between 10 and 14 of these cards to the client, and the client is required to construct a story about each picture.
• low reliability and validity

Question 44

Psychometric Personality Assessments

Answer 44

• assume that personality is consciously accessible, and that personality can be measured through self-report questionnaires
• are administered and scored in a standardised manner and often have norms against which to compare individual scores.
• The test can have a broad scope focus, assessing multiple aspects of personality in a comprehensive manner (e.g., MMPI-2-RF - true-false responses, Big Five Inventory (BFI) - likert scaled responses) or a narrow scope focus, targeting a particular aspect of personality.

Question 45

Advantages and disadvantages of psychometric tests

Answer 45

• Advantages of psychometric tests
  
  • economical (large groups can be tested simultaneously)
  • scoring and administration are relatively simple and objective
  • interpretation is easier as it relies less on the skills/training of the clinician
  • psychometric properties such as validity and reliability are clearly defined
• Disadvantages of psychometric tests
  
  • Tests often provide a single summary score
  • some tests rely heavily on self-knowledge, awareness or willingness to disclose honestly
  • the forced choice approach prevents individuals from qualifying or elaborating on their responses.

Question 46

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Answer 46

• based on Carl Jung’s typology theory
• classifies individuals along four theoretically independent dimensions:
  
  • Extraversion - Introversion,
  • Sensing - Intuition,
  • Thinking - Feeling,
  • Judging - Perceiving.
• 16 personality types: An individual’s overall personality type is expressed as a code with four letters (e.g., ESTP, INFJ, etc.).

Question 47

Criticisms of Myers-Briggs

Answer 47

• personality profiles are generally positive so one must question the validity of the instrument
• factor analysis reveals a Big Five solution
• there may be evidence of the Barnum effect (i.e., the tendency for people to find personal meaning in general or vague statements - a bit like a horoscope!).

Question 48

What is the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire? What are the Advantages and Disadvantages?

Answer 48

• Raymond Cattell (1949)
• self report measures of normal personality consisting of 185 multiple-choice items.
• Uses factor analysis
• 16 variables, or personality traits, that could be used to explain the variations of human personality.
• Tends to ask about actual behavioural situations (i.e.. concrete vs requiring taker to make self-assessment)
• E.g. when I find myself in a boring situation I usually tune out and daydream about other things – true/false
• Advantages:
  
  • Easy and quick to administer
  • Low face validity (hence less response bias)
  • Good support for reliability and validity
• Disadvantages:
  
  • Overeducated norm group (5^th grade reading level needed)
  • New version more complicated to score à converts raw scores to ‘stens’ (difficult to understand)

Question 49

Neo-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R). Advantages and disadvantages ?

Answer 49

• Costa and McCrae (1970s)
• provides a detailed and comprehensive assessment of adult personality based on the Big Five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, as well as six subordinate facets of each of these five main personality factors
• 240 items
• Advantages:
  
  • Excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability (and good validity)
  • Includes both a self-report and other report form – makes it easier to corroborate info
• Criticisms:
  
  • Does not control for socially desirable responding
  • Norms based on relatively small sample (1000 people)

Question 50

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI 3)

Answer 50

• designed to assess psychopathology and is primarily administered to clients who are suspected of having mental health or other clinical issues.
• has undergone three major revisions but all have remained relatively true to the original. In 2020 the first full revision complete with new norms was released; the MMPI-3.
• The MMPI-3 is suited to adults and takes between 25-50 minutes to complete.
  
  • Considered the gold standard in personality testing, it is a comprehensive measure comprising 335 items over 52 scales
• advantages of MMPI-3:
  
  • more representative norms, additional attention to areas such as disordered eating and impulsivity, and a focus on hierarchical models consistent with current trends in psychology

Question 51

• DSM-5 key elements of personality disorders

Answer 51

• (i) enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour which
• (ii) deviates markedly from cultural norms and expectations,
• (iii) is pervasive and inflexible,
• (iv) stable over time, and
• (v) leads to distress or impairment.
• Diagnosis requires this pattern to manifest in two or more areas: thinking, feeling, interpersonal relationships and impulse control.
• The DSM-5 identifies and describes ten specific personality disorders, grouped according to three clusters. These ten diagnoses represent ten specific enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. However, each of these ten patterns can be distilled down to four core features of personality disorders:
  
  • Rigid, extreme and distorted thinking patterns (thoughts)
  • Problematic emotional response patters (feelings)
  • Impulse control problems (behaviour)
  • Significant interpersonal problems (behaviour)

Question 52

What is DBT?

Answer 52

• dialectical behaviour therapy
  
  • combines standard CBT techniques for emotion regulation and reality testing, with concepts such as distress tolerance, mindfulness, and acceptance.

Question 53

what is psychodynamic therapy

Answer 53

• sees borderline personality disorder in terms of identity diffusion (difficulty forming multifaceted representations of self and others) and a distorting of primitive defences such as denial and projection

Question 54

what is schema therapy

Answer 54

• therapy holds that due to childhood needs not being met adequately we develop unhealthy ways of interpreting and interacting with the world, referred to as maladaptive schemas (e.g., abandoned/abused child mode, angry/impulsive child mode, detached protector mode, punitive parent mode, healthy adult mode).

Question 55

Borderline personality disorder - what are level 1 evidence therapies?

Answer 55

• DBT
• Psychodynamic therapy
• schema therapy

Question 56

Role of CBT and identifying and evaluating spefic thoughts

Answer 56

• positions a central role for thinking in the cause and maintenance of emotional problems, and therefore, has a number of techniques and strategies focused on thought, and thought process.
• Generally, therapists guide clients to work on automatic thoughts before directly addressing their beliefs.
• From the start, however, the therapist begins to formulate an understanding of the client which connects automatic thoughts to the deeper-level beliefs

Question 57

CBT - Identifying and Evaluating Situation Specific Thoughts

Answer 57

1. Identify thoughts
2. Emotional Valence
3. Socratic dialogue for generating evidence for thought evaluation

Question 58

CBT - what is emotional valence?

Answer 58

Identifying patterns of thoughts and then identifying the emotional valence of thoughts by giving them a rating.

e.g. how can i be most helpful? concerned 40%,

what should I say? concerned 60%

If I don’t do this, will xxx leave me? worried 80%

Question 59

What are thoughts thought as in CBT?

Answer 59

• A principle of CBT is that thoughts are not considered as ‘truths’ but are treated as hypotheses, or ideas, to be tested.
• if a way of thinking is unhelpful to the client, an assumption of CBT is that it is within the client’s control to be able to change it.

Question 60

CBT - what is Socratic dialogue?

Answer 60

• A central change process of changing thinking in CBT is Socratic dialogue
  
  • a re**lational process requiring the use of core counselling skills, and which aims to evaluate thoughts.
  • A CBT therapist does not know in advance the extent to which a client’s belief is valid or invalid, but requires input from the client to evaluate it.
  • facilitates a process of guided discovery for the client to evaluate their thinking.
  • It involves helping the client to explore the basis of their beliefs, in relation to their truth, and also in relation to their relevance, value, and usefulness.
  • When evaluating the truth of a particular thought, the ‘evidence’ for and against that thought is examined, with evidence considered as irrefutable facts present in the situation.