Personality Assessment Methods

Question 1

Research or behavioral intervention that replicates a variable or variables in ways that are similar to or analogous to the real variables the experimenter wishes to study; for example, a laboratory study designed to research a phobia of snakes in the wild

Answer 1

Analogue study

Question 2

To perceive in terms of past perceptions (from this verb, the noun apperception is derived)

Answer 2

Apperceive

Question 3

An approach to evaluation based on the analysis of samples of behavior, including the antecedents and consequences of the behavior

Answer 3

Behavioral assessment

Question 4

A potential source of error in behavioral ratings when a dissimilarity in the observed behaviors or other things being rated leads to a more or less favorable rating than would have been made had the dissimilarity not existed

Answer 4

Contrast effect

Question 5

A technique, most frequently used in psychoanalysis, wherein the subject relates all his or her thoughts as they occur

Answer 5

Free association

Question 6

In behavioral assessment, the process of identifying the dependent and independent variables with respect to a presenting problem

Answer 6

Functional analysis

Question 7

A typical element of Rorschach test administration; following the initial presentation of all ten cards, the assessor asks specific questions designed, among other things, to determine what about each card led to the assessee’s perceptions

Answer 7

Inquiry

Question 8

Typically a test consisting of short-answer items where the assessee’s task is to select one response from the two or more provided, and all scoring is done according to set procedures involving little if any judgment on the part of the scorer

Answer 8

Objective personality test

Question 9

An instrument useful in the assessment and treatment of male sex offenders, designed to measure changes in penis volume as a function of sexual arousal

Answer 9

Penile plethysmograph

Question 10

An instrument that records changes in the volume of a part of the body arising from variations in blood supply

Answer 10

Plethysmograph

Question 11

The instrument popularly known as a lie detector, 400, 516 Porteus Maze Test

Answer 11

Polygraph

Question 12

The thesis that an individual supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual’s own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding

Answer 12

Projective hypothesis

Question 13

Changes in an assessee’s behavior, thinking, or performance that arise in response to being observed, assessed, or evaluated

Answer 13

Reactivity

Question 14

Acting an improvised or partially improvised part in a simulated situation

Answer 14

Role play

Question 15

The act of systematically observing and recording aspects of one’s own behavior and/or events related to that behavior

Answer 15

Self-monitoring

Question 16

A procedure that typically involves the performance of a task by the assessee under actual or simulated conditions while allowing for observation and evaluation by an assessor

Answer 16

Situational performance measure

Question 17

(1) In ability testing, the continued administration of test items beyond the level at which the test manual dictates discontinuance; usually conducted only when the examiner has reason to believe an examinee can “pass” the higher-level items; (2) in the administration of the Rorschach test, an optional interview after the initial inquiry, in which the examiner asks questions designed to yield additional insights into the assessee’s thought processes and personality

Answer 17

Testing the limits

Question 18

A type of measure that does not necessarily require the presence or cooperation of respondents, often a telling physical trace or record

Answer 18

Unobtrusive measure