Cultural Appropriateness of Personality Measures

Question 1

Four Ways in Which a Personality Measure May Be Biased

Answer 1

• Equal Applicability
• Different Validity Coefficients
• Over- or Under-Identifying
• Test Structure

Question 2

Define Equal Applicability

Answer 2

• Test items that capture an underlying psychological concept in one group, may not be appropriate in another

Question 3

Define Different Validity Coefficients

Answer 3

• The pattern of validity coefficients may not be similar across groups

Question 4

Define Over- or Under-Identifying

Answer 4

• The use of cut off-scores on a scale to classify individuals may not be equally accurate across groups

Question 5

Define Test Structure

Answer 5

• The underlying structure of a test could be biased

Question 6

Why are these biases important?

Answer 6

• Researchers can come to incorrect conclusions
• Patients may be misdiagnosed
• Patients may not be diagnosed at all when they should be

Question 7

Example: “In a study on the influence of ethnicity in response to the California Personality Inventory, it was found that African American and European American university students responded differently to more than a third of items.”

Which Personality Measure Bias Does this Illustrate?

Answer 7

• Equal Aplicability

Question 8

Example: “Association between a negative attributional style and a depressive style may be much larger for one group compared to another.”

Which Personality Measure Bias Does this Illustrate?

Answer 8

• Different Validity Coefficients

Question 9

Example: “A study found that a screening tool that was useful for panic disorder in white Americans produced a high rate of false positives for African Americans.”

Which Personality Measure Bias Does this Illustrate?

Answer 9

• Over- or Under-Identifying

Question 10

Example: “A measure of anxiety may have a factor structure that has cognitive and physical components for one group, but only physical components for another group.”

Which Personality Measure Bias Does this Illustrate?

Answer 10

• Test Structure