Chapter 3: Personality Assesment

Question 1

What is the definition of personality?

Answer 1

It is patterns of behaviour, thought or emotional experience that are relatively consistent across time and situations

Question 2

What is the projective hypothesis?

Answer 2

1. If somebody is asked to describe or interpret a meaningless or ambiguous stimulus her answer cannot come from the stimulus itself
2. Answers reveal inner psychological needs, feelings, experiences, thought processes, or other hidden aspects of the mind

Question 3

What type of information projective tests provide?

Answer 3

B data

Question 4

What is an objective test?

Answer 4

It is a test that consist of a list of yes/no, true/false or numeric scale questions

Question 5

What are the four methods of test construction?

Answer 5

1. Rational
2. Factor analytic
3. Empirical
4. Combinaison

Question 6

What are the four conditions for validity of the rational method?

Answer 6

1. Items mean the same thing to the test taker and creator
2. Capability of the person tested to do and accurate self-assessment
3. Willingness to make an accurate and undistorted report
4. Items must be valid indicators of what is being measured

Question 7

What are the steps to use the factor analytic method?

Answer 7

1. Generate a long list of objective items
2. Administer these items to a large number of people
3. Analyze with a factor analysis
4. Consider what the items that group together have in common and name the factor

Question 8

What are the steps to use the empirical method?

Answer 8

1. Gather lots of items
2. Have a sample of people already divided into groups
3. Administer the test
4. Compare the answers of the different groups
5. Cross-validation

Question 9

What is statistical significance?

Answer 9

It is a result that would only occur by chance less than 5 percent of the time

Question 10

What is the Null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST)?

Answer 10

It is the traditional method of statistical data analysis that determines the chance of getting the result if nothing were really going on

Question 11

What is the type I error?

Answer 11

It involves deciding that one variable has an effect on, or a relationship with, another variable, when it really does not

Question 12

What is the type II error?

Answer 12

It involves deciding that one variable does not have an effect on, or relationship with, another variable, when it really does

Question 13

What is the p-level?

Answer 13

It is the probability level of obtaining a result from a statistical test if there really is no difference between groups or no relationship between variables

Question 14

Personality tests are used…
a. only for research purposes
b. only in clinical settings
c. only rarely
d. frequently and by researchers, clinicians, and corporations

Answer 14

d. frequently and by researchers, clinicians, and corporations

Question 15

If a person is asked to respond to a picture that could be described in many different ways, then…
a. S data are being collected
b. a projective test is being used
c. the respondents are likely to be aware of what they are revealing about themselves
d. the test is probably being given by a research psychologist

Answer 15

b. a projective test is being used

Question 16

Personality tests…
a. should not be used to make decisions about who to hire for a job
b. can be used to help people make decisions about what career to pursue
c. cannot be used in replication studies
d. should not be used because they give organizations too much control over others

Answer 16

a. should not be used to make decisions about who to hire for a job

Question 17

What is the replication?

Answer 17

The ability to recreate a result, it gives an idea of the stability of results

Question 18

What is the publication bias?

Answer 18

It is the fact that studies with strong results are more likely to be published than the ones with weak results

Question 19

Faking responses in order to influence test results is MOST difficult on ________ constructed tests.

a. rationally
b. factor analytically
c. empirically
d. nomothetically
e. haphazardly

Answer 19

c. empirically

Question 20

________ tests aim to gain insight into personality by interpreting individuals’ open-ended responses, whereas ________ tests evaluate individuals’ responses to specific questions with predetermined response options.

a. Subjective; objective
b. Projective; objective
c. Exploratory; empirical
d. Clinical; nonclinical
e. Quantitative; qualitative

Answer 20

b. Projective; objective

Question 21

The main reason why objective tests include so many items is to increase the ________ of the test.

a. tediousness
b. content validity
c. construct validity
d. criterion-related validity
e. reliability

Answer 21

e. reliability

Question 22

Which of the following is the best explanation for why publication bias is a major concern in science?

a. It is far too easy for researchers to commit fraud
b. Weak effects are often more interesting than strong effects, but are less frequently published
c. Only researchers with interesting findings are awarded grants and jobs
d. Researchers can make choices throughout the research process and manipulate real datasets to get the results they want
e. Strong effects are published more, leading to a literature that does not represent the actual strength of an effect

Answer 22

e. Strong effects are published more, leading to a literature that does not represent the actual strength of an effect

Question 23

The sole basis on which items are selected for empirically derived personality scales is whether…

a. they are correlated with other items on the scales
b. their content adequately reflects the construct to be measured
c. their content was developed on the basis of laboratory experiments
d. the respondent will be willing and able to give an accurate self-assessment for them
e. they are answered differently by different kinds of people

Answer 23

e. they are answered differently by different kinds of people