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)
