Midterm 2 - Objective Personality Tests (Ch. 13 and Holden et al.) Flashcards
What are the 3 main things that make up personality?
- behaviour
- affect
- cognition
What are personality traits?
- basically ingredients of personality
- broad dimensions of indiv differences that explain an individual’s consistency in behaviour, thought, and feeling across relevant situations and over time
What does the lexical tradition of personality traits suggest?
- most important traits represented by single words
- Galton and Cattell both suggested that all important or useful aspects of human personality are embedded in language
- this means we can use lexical analysis to identify traits!
What is lexical/factor analysis in terms of personality?
- catalogue of all adjectives describing personality
- identify smallest # of factors/groups that represent widest variety of adjectives in the language
- like periodic table or building blocks of personality
What are the big 5 Factors of personality (in order of largest to smallest)?
- Factor 1: Extraversion
- Factor 2: Agreeableness
- Factor 3: Conscientiousness
- Factor 4: Neuroticism
- Factor 5: Openness to Experience
What are the 6 facets of extraversion?
- friendliness
- gregariousness
- assertiveness
- activity level
- excitement seeking
- cheerfulness
What are the 6 facets of agreeableness?
- trust
- morality
- altruism
- cooperation
- modesty
- sympathy
What are the 6 facets of conscientiousness?
- self-efficacy
- orderliness
- dutifulness
- achievement-striving
- self-discipline
- cautiousness
What are the 6 facets of neuroticism?
- anxiety
- anger
- depression
- self-consciousness
- impulsiveness (immoderation)
- vulnerability
What are the 6 facets of openness to experience?
- imagination
- artistic interests
- emotionality
- adventurousness
- intellect
- liberalism
Are big 5 traits distinct categories or a continuum?
continuum! (labels apply more strongly to those at extreme ends)
What method of scale construction was used for NEO?
rational scale construction
NEO timeline:
- in 1978, test has __, ___, and ___ scales and ___ facets
- in 1983, test has __ and __ scales added
- in 1992, a manual including _____ for all factors and a ____ version (NEO-FFI) is created
- in 1978, N, E, and O scales and 18 facets
- in 1983, A and C scales added
- in 1992, a manual including FACET SCALES for all factors and a SHORT version is created
What is the internal consistency for traits and facets of the NEO-PI-R? Why is one lower?
- traits: .86-.92
- facets: .56-.81 (lower reliability bc measured by fewer items)
What is NEO-PI-Rs test-retest reliability at:
- 3 months:
- 6 years (N,E,O):
- 3 years (A,C):
- 3 months: .75-.83
- 6 years (N,E,O): .68-.83
- 3 years (A,C): .63-.79
What did the NEO-PI-3 add?
- age range 14-99
- norms for adolescents!
What are 2 main issues with NEO, and what do they do about it?
- acquiescence (half items reversed)
- social desirability (esp for A and C, this is a construct validity problem)
What does MMPI stand for?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
What is the MMPI?
- self-report measure of abnormal personality
When was the MMPI first published? What is the current version?
- first published 1940
- current version: MMPI-2 (1989)
What method of scale construction did the MMPI use? What type of response scale?
- empirical approach
- response scale: true or false or cannot say
The MMPI has an item pool of ___ items
550
What are the 10 original clinical scales of the MMPI?
- Hypochondriasis
- Depression
- Hysteria
- Psychopathic Deviate
- Masculinity-Femininity
- Paranoia
- Psychasthenia
- Schizophrenia
- Hypomania
- Social Introversion
Which scales of the MMPI are no longer considered clinical scales?
- Masculinity-Femininity (scale 5)
- Social Introversion (scale 0)
What are the 3 validity scales for the original MMPI?
- L (lie) scale
- F scale (infrequency scale; endorse items few ppl endorse)
- K scale (defensiveness scale; faking good)
Which MMPI scales make up the neurotic triad?
- Hypochondriasis (1; numerous physical symptoms)
- Depression (2; sadness, loss of energy, etc)
- Hysteria (3; physical symptoms in response to stress)
Which MMPI scales make up the psychotic tetrad?
- Paranoia (6; resentful/suspicious, delusions of persecution)
- Psychasthenia (7; rumination, obsessive-compulsive)
- Schizophrenia (8; withdrawn, bizarre thinking)
- Hypomania (9; impulsive, distractible, emotional excitement)
How are MMPI scores interpreted? What scores are clinically significant?
- T-scores, M = 50 SD = 10
- scores over 70 may have clinical significance, over 65 in MMPI-2!
- interpret results using pattern of scores (eg 2-point profile looks at 2 highest scores and matches this pairing to a profile)
What did the updated MMPI-2 (1989) change?
- more appropriate normative sample (now outdated)
- updated item content
- same scales, but Masc-Fem and Soc Int no longer clinical scales
- new validity scales! (FB, VRIN, TRIN)
What were the 3 validity scales added in MMPI-2?
- FB: F scale (infrequency scale) in second half of test too
- VRIN: random responding
- TRIN: acquiescence
According to analyses of MMPI-2, which scale has the weakest reliability?
- scale 6 (Paranoia)
- test-retest: .67 in men and .58 in women
- int. con.: .34 in men and .39 in women (indicates problem with the scale!!)
What are content scales in MMPI-2? How were they developed?
- dev. in MMPI-2 in addition to clinical scales
- developed based on rational test construction
- ex. anxiety, fears, obsessiveness, family problems
What are 1 strength and 3 weaknesses of MMPI-2?
strength:
- large, more diverse normative sample
weaknesses:
- criterion groups now dated
- high avg SES and education in norm group
- considerable item overlap reduces discriminant validity
How does Holden contrast the 4 primary strategies of test construction (rational, projective, empirical, construct)? Which approach is currently dominant?
- rational (aka correspondence): intuitive and atheoretical, what you say is what you are, responses are samples of beh.
- projective: theoretical approach, private self is covert and guarded to need ambiguous stimuli for self-report, responses are signs rather than samples of behaviour
- empirical: atheoretical, scale dev via contrasted groups
- construct: theoretical definitions of domains, incorporates stat methods for internal consistency and con/divergent validity
**construct is currently dominant approach
(T/F) self-report scales completed on the internet have less response bias (eg social desirability) vs those completed in a lab
FALSE
According to Holden, what is one key example of ancillary data collection made possible by computerized testing?
- response time (latency)
- can be impacted by items or individual differences (eg self-schemas!)
- possess patterns of construct validity
- can also identify faking (ppl who are faking good take longer to give an unfavourable response)
What are the 2 alternatives to self-report that Holden discusses, and what are the issues with each?
Peer-reports/informant ratings
- concerns w poor agreement btw self-peer or btw peers (they see person in diff contexts, informant personality can also impact responses)
- time-consuming and expensive!
Institutional file review
- usually done in conjunction w other methods
- mixed findings on reliability and validity of method
- likely best for research and not clinical
What are 2 ongoing issues w self-report mentioned by Holden?
- phrasing of items can impact response (eg closed vs open ended Qs, reference period, rating scale)
- response set/style (eg acquiescence, social desirability, extreme responding)
What do we know about convergent and discriminant validity for the NEO-PI-R?
- convergent validity (self-spouse agreement) is pretty good (.60-.73)
- C & A have weak correlation so can’t claim discriminant validity for scale
