Personality Assessment – Self-Report Inventories Flashcards
How does Freud think personality develops?
freud-personality develops through psychosexual stages.
How does Bandura think personality develops?
bandura- social learning-personality developed by learning through other people
How does Maslow think personality develops?
maslow-five levels of need, physiological, safety, love, esteem etc. personality develops thorugh this
General process theories e.g. Maslow, bandura, freud, all focus on the
GENERAL PROCESS of developing personality and LITTLE ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES or on MEASUREMENT.
Structural/descriptive theories instead, focus on
(e.g. Cattell, Eysenck, Guilford, Five Factor Model)
WHAT ARE THESE THEORIES CALLED!?
• Emphasise individual differences
Catell = 16 factors of personality
5 factor = thought we can plot personality on 5 factors.
Guilford: developed factor analysis, allows us to describe elements of personality
Eysneck: where they fall on extraversion constructs and other orthogonal constructs
CALLED TRAIT THEORIES!
Whats a trait?
- is a predisposition to respond to situations in a consistent way
- is unobservable (meaning we infer their traits through looking at behaviour).
- predicts behaviour
The nomothetic view?
• Trait theories assume there is a set of dimensions of personality on which all
people can be placed
• Responses from the individual are understood in the context of responses
from a large group of people
• The uniqueness of individuals is captured by scores on a set of traits – a
Profile (e.g., 16PF)
The idiographic view:
hint:
for the idiot individual
• A standard set of traits cannot describe the richness of an individuals
personality
• An individual’s behaviour may not be organised according to a particular trait
• A single set of traits cannot be relevant to all individuals
• Traits are ok – but a different set may be required for each person
EXAMPLE
If someone has a middle score for honesty on the nomo ‘they are moderately honest,
or half honest half dishonest’. This view forces a trait onto someone, where other one doesn’t.
Idiographic approach on a middle score for honesty, makes more sense, ‘person’s behaviour is irrelevant to describing this person’s personality’
2 ways to measure personality
1) Ask the person – Self Report
2) Observe the Person
Rely on the observations of others who are close to the person (parent ratings/teachers).
Observe person under standard conditions
• Projective techniques (give person an unstructured or ambiguous situation and we observe their responses)
Self-Report Inventories (or questionnaires) are used to assess both normal and abnormal personality.
True or false
true
Response formats in self report quesitonnaires can either be
absolute (each item judged independently)
• My success in life has been determined by good fortune.
• No Yes
• False True
• Disagree Agree
• Disagree, Unsure, Agree
• Strongly Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Neutral, Somewhat Agree.. etc.
forced choice (equally socially desirable-removes social desirability bias). • I become homicidal when people try to reason with me • The sight of blood no longer excites me
Advantages of SRIs
(over observational methods)??
- easy to construct and establish norms
- can be administered to groups and individuals
- require little training for admin and scoring (self-explanatory, person does it themsleves)
- time and cost effective, UNLIKE OBSERVATIONAL, WHERE YOU NEED TO BE QUALIFIED
- can be used in a variety of settings, whereas observational methods are done mainly in clinical settings
Main disadvantage of SRIs
Self-report assumes that the respondent:
• can be accurate (self deception)
• will be accurate (fake good/bad)
e.g. fake ability is important, particularly in context of say job applicant
What is a response tendency?
The way in which a test-taker answers items on the test, regardless of the content of the items
Acquiescence?
Acquiescence – agree with what’s presented despite what they truly believe
Non-acquiescence?
Non-acquiescence – disagree with what’s presented
Socially desirable responding?
Socially desirable responding – tendency to see oneself in a favourable light (either unintentionally or intentionally)
Overcautious approach?
Overcautious approach – choosing middle options on response scales (counteract by choosing forced choice true false )
Extremes in responding?
Extremes in responding – endorse items in an unusual/uncommon way
ON A BROADER LEVEL, person also influenced by …
- Attention, concentration, comprehension
* Assume well and of average intelligence (mentally stable and understand items).
How do we counteract for acquiescence or non acq?
counteract by having negative and positively worded questions.
If someone is acquiescent and say yes on everything then we should be able to tell
by comparing pairs of items that should match up e.g. i am not lazy (yes) and I work hard (yes)
Distinguish construct and criterion validity
Criterion: Validity of a selection process test assessed by comparing the test scores with a non-test criterion. e.g. a test on sociability, asking people how many friends they have (correlate with an objective measure)
Construct: the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring. Can compare with preexisting measures of the construct.
la deuxieme chance
;)
Examples of external, inductive and deductive inventories
- External= MMPI-2
- Inductive= 16PF and NEO PI-3
- Deductive= MCMI-III and Myers-Briggs Typological Indicator
What is this…
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology.
used to diagnose mental disorders, but used for both normal and abnormal personalities.
What were the criterion groups for the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- Criterion groups were psychiatric patients with a particular diagnosis and patients without that particular diagnosis
- Items were retained which reliably distinguished between the two groups
e.g. • I really like most people I meet
• I believe I am being plotted against
• My sleep is fitful and disturbed
How many items in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
How many clinical scales are being tested (disorders/symptoms)
567 items. longest test!
10 clinical scales altogether e.g. hysteria, paranoia
Breather!
thank god.
There are these three validity scores on the MMPI…
- Lie Score
- Frequency Score (F)
- Correction Score (K)
What are they!?
LIE SCORE:measure of social desirability e.g. i do not like everyone i know. Most ppl answer as true.
This is put in specifically to filter out socially desirable. And interpret other scores with caution.
Frequency score: evil spirits possess me sometimes, if you answer true to that, you may be extreme scoring
Correction score: about pushing boundaries in society.
at times i feel like smashing things (true-you may be faking bad, false you may be faking good).
SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS-SHOTS, SHOTS-SHOTS, SHOTS
EVERYBODY!
explain the 3 approaches to personality test development (external; inductive; deductive)
Construction methods are related to methods of determining validity
• criterion vs construct
- External (aka empirical; criterion group)
- Inductive (aka factor analytic; internal)
- Deductive (aka rational; intuitive; theoretical)
Explain external approach to personality test development.
• Examples include MMPI-2
• aka empirical; criterion group
• Scale membership of items is determined by criteria external to questionnaire domain
• assumes that people come in “batches” (happy-unhappy; depressed-manic, neurotic or not)
• items are devised that are identified with the factor of interest
• administer items to 2 groups, one known to have the trait (criterion group) and the other
known not to have the trait (reference group)
• keep the items that discriminate between the two groups
• can adopt an entirely empirical approach - i.e. the reason that an item discriminates doesn’t necessarily matter e.g. if differentiating btn happy group of ppl and unhappy is the fact the happy ppl like apples, then keep it!
• externally referenced tests are used where purpose is discrimination of a group
• Problem: Unreliability of criterion (some items may discriminate well on one item e.g. do you like apples, but are useless for others).
Explain inductive approach to personality test development.
• Examples include 16PF and NEO PI-3
• aka factor analytic; internal
• attempts to identify the universals of personality by inferring from specific cases to the generalities
• inductive because the number and nature of the scales on a questionnaire follow from the data analysis
• generate a large number of items
• administer to as many people as possible (thousands)
• factor analyse results to group the items into scales (looks at inter correlation btn each item with every other item in the test. finds groups of
items that are more closely related to than others (to create groups/factors e.g. how warmth is related to agreableness).
• devise labels
Explain deductive approach to personality test development.
- Examples include MCMI-III and MBTI
- aka rational; intuitive; theoretical
- Choice and definition of construct(s) precedes item formulation
- formulate the construct or use an existing well formulated construct
- deduce basic descriptors from construct
- write items
MMPI has a few different scales that we look at…
what is the content scale.
Content scale: provide insight into specific types of symptoms and areas of functioning that the clinical scales do not measure; and are supposed to be used in addition to the clinical scales to interpret profiles
examples:
- Health Concerns
- Bizarre Mentation
- Anger
- Cynicism
MMPI has a few different scales that we look at…
what is the clinical scale?
clinical scales were designed to measure common diagnoses
examples: • Paranoia • Psychasthenia (ocd) • Schizophrenia • Hypomania
MMPI has a few different scales that we look at…
what is the validity scale?
basically a scale used to detect if responding was accurate.
MMPI has a few different scales that we look at…
In terms of validity scale, what do these subsets mean?
Cannot say Infrequency or F Scale and Back F Scale Superlative Self-presentation Scale Variable Response Inconsistency Scale True Response Inconsistency Scale
Cannot say (unanswered items)
Infrequency or F Scale and F Back Scale (infrequency=Client “faking bad” in first half of test)
(F back= Client “faking bad” in last half of test)
(basically general deviant or atypical ways of responding).
Superlative Self-presentation Scale
=under-reporting or downplaying psychological symptoms. appearing excessively good. willingness to disclose personal information. Someone high on this scale is very defensive and thinks they are a good person.
Variable Response Inconsistency Scale = Answering similar/opposite question pairs inconsistently. may indicate indiscriminate responding.
True Response Inconsistency Scale = Answering questions all true. (acquiescent response style ‘yes’ for everything e.g.)
Further comments on the MMPI 2 scale
e.g. sample size representative.
- Test of normal or abnormal personality?
- Large normative sample (n = 2900)
- but is it a representative sample?
- 47.8% 20-39 years old
- excess representation of higher education
- Reliability of some scales is low (< .7)
- Validity of some of the supplementary scales has not been adequately tested
What is 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)??
How did Cattell make this?
• Designed as a measure of normal personality traits
Made through factor analysis. Thousands of responses of trait descriptors yielded 16 factors, Cattell called them the primary source traits of personality.
How many items are in the 16 personality Factor questionnaire?
Examples?
185items;170 phrased as self-statements and rated true/false or forced choice
• People are lazy on the job if they can get away with it
• I don’t usually mind if my room is messy
• When one small thing after another goes wrong, I
feel as though I can’t cope OR just go on as usual
Response indices in 16 personality factor questionnaire?
there are three!
- IM: Impression Management measure of social desirability
- INF: Infrequency: tendency to endorse uncommon items
- ACQ: Acquiescence: tendency to say yes regardless of content of item
NEO PI –3
• BASED on the Five Factor Model of personality traits
• Items derived from previous questionnaires and rationally
derived items from domain descriptions
• Factor analysis yielded 5 factors each made up of 6 facets
• Revision allows use in adolescents as young as 12
How many items in NEO P1-3
240 items phrased as self-statements rated on a 5-point scale:
• I really like most people I meet
An example of a domain in NEO P1-3
Neuroticism (5 domains for OCEAN, 6 facets each). • Anxiety • Anger • Depression • Self-consciousness • Impulsiveness • Vulnerability
Further comments on NEO P1-3
e. g. is it used for normal or abnormal personality? think.
e. g. is it valid? Why not?
- Self-report and observer-rating versions available
- Designed as a test of normal personality but increasing evidence for its usefulness in clinical settings for disorders.
- Separate norms for adults and college-aged people
- No validity (response style) indices (SO NO WAY TO KNOW IF SOMEONE IS FAKING GOOD OR BAD)
What is Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III
measure of ABNORMAL personality.
- Designed as a test of personality disorders and symptoms associated with them
- Constructed by a deductive approach based on Millon’s theory of personality functioning and psychopathology
- Scales reflect the classificatory system of DSM-IV – Axis II Personality Disorders
How many items in Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III
175 items phrased as self-statements and rated as true/false
• I’m too unsure of myself to risk trying something new
• I guess I’m a fearful and inhibited person
example of disorders test for: NOTE these tap into scales that are not diagnostic but use diagnostic terms. Clinical Personality Patterns • Schizoid • Avoidant • Depressive • Dependent
Does the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III have any validity indices?
no but has modifying indices:
- disclosure (willingness to share personal details)
- desirability,
- debasement (tendency to display oneself in negative light),
- validity= tendency of individual to endorse the item to the opposite of majority
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
• Assesses personality using Jung’s classification
• People have definite preferences in how they approach the world, receive
information about the world and make conclusions about the world
The myers briggs type indicator has four bipolar dimensions.
Rate yourself in the correct way for these.
Four bipolar dimensions
• Extraverted – Introverted (attitude)
• Sensation – Intuition (way of perceiving)
• Thinking – Feeling (judgement)
• Judgement – Perception (orientation to world)
I am a E, I, T, P person (extraverted, intuition etc..)
Myer Briggs Type Indicator
• Scores on four dimensions give 16 possible types • Ipsative (vs normative) approach. Ipsative just means forced choice.
• Forced choice format
e.g. Which of these words appeals to you more: scheduled OR unplanned
• When you go somewhere for the day, would you rather: Plan what you will do and when OR Just go
- Several forms; Form G has 126 items. No response indices :(
- Much used in occupational settings
Test retest reliability of Myer Briggs Type Indicator
test retest reliability is poor. only 40% was due to true score and 60% due to measure.
