Personality Assessment Flashcards
What are some approaches to studying personality?
- Personality scales and self-rating
- Responses on projective tests
- Physiological measures
- Behavioural assessment
- Reports, ratings by other people
- Interview data
Reliability
Consistency of measurement
A test that measures a stable personality trait should yield similar scores when given to an individual at different times
Validity
Is the test actually measuring the personality variable that it is intended to measure?
A valid test allows us to predict behaviour that is influenced by the personality variable being measured
Structured interviews
Used to collect research data or make psychiatric diagnosis, contains a set of specific questions that are administered to every participant
Behavioural Assessment
explicit coding system devised by psychologists that contains the behavioural categories of interest
Remote behavioural sampling
researchers and clinicians collect samples of behaviour from respondents as they live their daily lives
•Using a beeper to signal writing down thoughts
Rational Approach
an approach to test construction in which test items are made up on the basis of a theorist’s conception of a construct
•NEO-PI uses rational approach
Empirical Approach
an approach to test construction in which items (regardless of their content) are chosen that differentiate between two groups that are known to differ on a particular personality variable
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
a widely used personality test whose items were developed by using the empirical approach and comparing various kinds of psychiatric patients with normal patients
•567 True or False questions
•MMPI-2 is the best known test developed with the empirical approach
Projective Tests
tests, such as the Rorschach and the TAT, that present ambiguous stimuli to the subject; the responses are assumed to be based on a projection of internal characteristics of the person onto the stimuli
•Favoured by psychodynamic theorists who believe that the tests reveal unconscious
Rorschach Test
Inkblots are shown to a person and then they are asked “what do they look like? White might it be?”
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Consists of a series of pictures derived from paintings, drawings and magazine illustrations
There are then asked to explain what characters are doing/feeling and what the outcome will be
What are the validity scales in the MMPI-2 used for?
- To detect tendencies to present an overly positive picture
- To exaggerate the degree of psychological disturbances
- Deny Problems
