Ch 8: Assessment: Self Report and Projective Measures Flashcards
What are personality traits?
- consistencies in behaviour, emotions, and attitudes across situations and time, shaped by genetics and life experiences
- ie the more an individual possessed a certain trait, the more likely they would behave consistent with that trait in any situation or environment
What is the person-situation debate?
- whether measures of personality can accurately predict behaviour and if personality is stable or if stability is illusory
What did Mischel’s literature review find about the person-situation debate?
- variations across situations were more important than personality measures in accounting for behavioural variability
- personality and behaviour overlap rarely
How is the person-situation debate viewed today?
- no longer considered a debate (like nature vs. nurture)
- both situational influences and personality traits are important in predicting behaviour
What is cross-situational variability important for?
- cross-situational variability in people’s actions is a source of important information
What did the person-situation debate spark?
- psychologists began developing and increasingly using situation or disorder-specific checklists and rating scales which now complement personality measures in assessments
What do validity scales detect?
- many measures include validity scales that detect:
- faking good
- malingering
- inconsistent response style
How do we develop culturally appropriate measures?
- assume measures are culturally biased unless data suggests otherwise
- is the content applicable across different groups?
- are construct related in similar ways across different groups?
- do the cut-off scores developed with one group apply to other groups?
- is the factor structure the same across groups? (one group may have more physical components of anxiety)
What is the ideal way to use culturally appropriate assessment?
- use measures that have been validated for the specific group
- consult published norms in interpreting findings
- use multiple assessment methods to reduce bias
How do we complete culturally appropriate assessment when there are no measures validated for use with a group?
- avoid using scores
- use tests to generate hypotheses only
- explicitly acknowledge questionable validity of test with this group
What must always be taken into account when interpreting test data?
- take into account the client’s life circumstances when interpreting test data and integrating hypotheses with other clinical information
What are the steps to translate a measure?
- translate
- back-translate
- compare and adjust as required
- pilot test and adjust
- test reliability in larger sample and adjust
- re-standardize scores with norms from 2nd language group
- study construct validity
What are the aspects of clinical utility?
- do clinicians find it useful?
- is there replicated evidence of reliability and validity?
- does it make a difference?
Why were self-report personality measures created?
- based on idea that we are good sources of information about ourselves
What is the downfall of self-report personality measures?
- little scientific evidence of personality measures having meaningful impact on outcome of psychological services
- have been used to inform treatment-planning decisions but are not effective for this
What is efficacy? What is effectiveness?
- efficacy: performance under ideal conditions
- effectiveness: performance under real-world conditions
What self-report personality measures are available for clinical and non-clinical populations?
- Neo Personality Inventory-3 based on 5-factor model of personality (OCEAN)
- do not include validity scales due to focus on normal personality
What self-report personality measures are available in clinical populations only?
- MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF
- MMPR-2-A
- MCMI-IV and MACI
- PAI-A
What is the MMPI-2?
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- self-report personality test available in more than 2 dozen languages and in an adolescent version
- comprised of validity scales, clinical scales and content scales
What revisions were made in the MMPI-2-RF?
- reduced # of items
- restructured scales
- stronger psychometric properties but less research
- many clinicians still use MMPI-2
What is one downside of MMPI-2?
- research has found that it risks overpathologizing clients from low SES
What caused the shift to self-report checklists of behaviour and symptoms?
- shift away from broadband tests to self-report checklists
- developments in EBA, changes in reimbursement practices, greater awareness and demand for measures that help case formulation and treatment evaluation
What are some commonly used self-report checklists?
- Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA)
- Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
- Children’s Depression Inventory 2 (CDI 2)
What are the pros of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)? Cons?
- pros: frequently used, evidence it is psychometrically strong tool for assessing depressive symptoms in adolescents and adults (reliability and validity)
- cons: does not provide sufficient detail to determine if diagnosis is met, scores drop due to repeated administration of the test (imprecise for treatment-monitoring)
What are the pros of the Children’s Depression Inventory 2 (CDI-2)? Cons?
- pro: CDI had good reliability and validity, no socioeconomic effects
- cons: does not distinguish between heightened levels of depressive and anxious symptoms, repeated testing can cause decreased reported symptoms
What are projective measures of personality?
- present ambiguous stimuli with no inherent meaning so clinician can infer client’s personality and psychosocial functioning
- origins in Freud and psychoanalysis
What are the 5 categories of projective tests?
- association techniques ( indicate what a stimulus looks like)
- construction techniques (produce a story, drawing, etc.)
- completion techniques (finish a sentence, story, etc.)
- arrangement/selection techniques (rank order preference for stimuli)
- expression techniques (analysis of handwriting)
What are the cons of projective measures of personality?
- no standardization and no availability of appropriate norms (only Rorschach)
- variability in reliability and validity data
Why do psychologists continue to use projective tests?
- training/clinician tradition
- eminence-based practice
- barnum effect among clients and overestimation of psychopathology
