Personality Testing Flashcards
Define
Social-cognitive approach
an approach to personality that examines the relationships between people’s behaviour, the situations in which these behaviours occur, and their cognitions about them
Define
Positive psychology
a relatively recent approach in psychology that stresses the behaviours, thoughts and feelings that characterise optimal functioning rather than dysfunction
Define
Psychoanalytic approach
an approach to personality that originate in the work of Sigmund Freud on the role of unconscious motivational processes in normal and abnormal personality functioning; it was elaborated on by a number of researchers during the course of the twentieth century
Define
Personological approach
an approach to personality that began with the work of Henry Murray who sought to study personality in terms of the (principally) psychogenic needs of the individual and the extent to which the environment promoted or inhibited these needs
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Paradigm in personality assessment
approaches to personality assessment that share: assumptions about how personality is best studied; methods for collecting personality data; and criteria for making judgements about what constitute adequate statements about personality
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Multivariate (trait) approach
the oldest approach to personality that in its modern form proposes that there are a number of dimensions of individual difference that people have in common and that serve to specify the individual’s personality
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Interpersonal approach
an approach to personality that proposes that personality exists only in the interaction between people and that the study of interpersonal processes is therefore central to personality assessment
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Empirical approach
a way of constructing psychological tests that relies on collecting and evaluating data about how each of the items from a pool of items discriminated between groups of respondents who are thought to show or not show the attribute the test is to measure; also an approach to personality that relates the reports that people make about their characteristic behaviours to their social functioning and thereby provide tools for personality prediction
Define
Clinical interview
a technique for collecting information about a client; it may take many forms, for example, a psychoanalytic perspective includes detailed exploration of the personal and family history of the client, particularly with respect to psychosocial development, conflict, and defense, self and interpersonal processes
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Personality
the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character
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Systematic personality testing
Specific questions or statements to which the person responds by using specific, fixed answers or a rating scale
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Response style
a tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of the item or question
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Impression management
the attempt to manipulate others’ impressions through “the selective exposure of some information… coupled with suppression of [other] information”
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Validity scale
a subscale of a test designed to assist in judgements regarding how honestly the testtaker responded and whether responses were products of response style, carelessness, deception or misunderstanding
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Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
a standardized psychometric test of adult personality and psychopathology. Psychologists and other mental health professionals use various versions of this test to help develop treatment plans, assist with differential diagnosis, help answer legal questions (forensic psychology), screen job candidates during the personnel selection process, or as part of a therapeutic assessment procedure
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16 Personality Factor Model (16PF)
a self-report personality test developed over several decades of empirical research by Raymond B. Cattell, Maurice Tatsuoka and Herbert Eber. It provides a measure of normal personality and can also be used by psychologists, and other mental health professionals, as a clinical instrument to help diagnose psychiatric disorders, and help with prognosis and therapy planning
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NEO Personality Inventory
a personality inventory that examines a person’s Big Five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)
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General Self-Efficacy Scale
a 10-item psychometric scale that is designed to assess optimistic self-beliefs to cope with a variety of difficult demands in life
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Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
a self-report questionnaire that consists of two 10-item scales to measure both positive and negative affect. The measure has been used mainly as a research tool in group studies, but can be utilized within clinical and non-clinical populations as well
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Projective tests
a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test.
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Over-determinism
what a person does or says reflects their personality
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Projective hypothesis
whatever a person sees in a stimulus is assumed to be a reflection of their personal qualities or characteristics
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Rorschach Ink Blot Test
a psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning.
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Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
involves showing respondents ambiguous pictures of people and asking them to come up with an explanation for what is happening in the scene
Definition
an approach to personality that examines the relationships between people’s behaviour, the situations in which these behaviours occur, and their cognitions about them
Social-cognitive approach
Definition
a relatively recent approach in psychology that stresses the behaviours, thoughts and feelings that characterise optimal functioning rather than dysfunction
Positive psychology
Definition
an approach to personality that originate in the work of Sigmund Freud on the role of unconscious motivational processes in normal and abnormal personality functioning; it was elaborated on by a number of researchers during the course of the twentieth century
Psychoanalytic approach
Definition
an approach to personality that began with the work of Henry Murray who sought to study personality in terms of the (principally) psychogenic needs of the individual and the extent to which the environment promoted or inhibited these needs
Personological approach
What are the strategies of Structured Personality Test Construction?
