PSYC4022 Testing and Assessment Week Five Personality Flashcards
Describe One’s Definition of Personality
“the spectrum of enduring dispositions that distinguish people from one another in terms of basic tendencies to think, feel, and act.” Ones, 2009
Personality Trait
“Any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another” (Guildford, 1959, pg. 6)
Personality State
the transitory exhibition of some personality trait; a relatively temporary predisposition.
Personality Type
A constellation of traits that is similar in pattern to one identified category of personality within a taxonomy of personalities
Personality Assessment
the measurement and evaluation of psychological traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of humour, cognitive and behavioural styles, and/ or related individual characteristics.
Personality Profile
A narrative description of the extent to which a person has demonstrated certain personality traits, states or types. (The MMPI commonly reveals a profile).
Content-Oriented Approach to Test Development
The use of Logic and Reason in the Development of Tests
Data Reduction
Is used to identify the minimum number of variables or factors that account for inter-correlations in observed phenomena.
Response Style
A tendency to respond in a given way.
Impression Management
The attempt to manipulate others’ impressions through “the selective exposure of some information… coupled with suppression of [other]information” (Braginsky et al.,1969, p.51)
Ipsative
Using yourself as the norm against which to measure something , e.g. your present performance against your past performance rather than the performance of others
John Holland believed there were 6 personality types. What are they?
- Artistic
- Enterprising
- Investigative
- Social
- Realistic
- Conventional
What is the name of the test John Holland developed?
Self Directed Search (SDS) test
What is John Holland’s test designed to do?
Identify Vocational Interests
Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman developed a two category personality typology. What were the two personality types described?
Type A and Type B
Endler and Magnusson (1976) believed there were 5 major personality theories. What are they?
- Trait
- Psychodynamic
- Situational
- Interaction
- Phenomenological
What are the 5 major debates in personality theory?
- Universality Vs Uniqueness
- Nature Vs Nurture
- State Vs Trait
- Free Will Vs Determinism
- Conscious Vs Unconscious
Hippocrates (440BCE) believed there were 4 body “humors” Physical differences related to personality types. What are they?
- Blood - Sanguine - Cheerful
- Black Bile - Melancholic - Gloomy
- Yellow Bile - Choleric - Angry or Violent
- Phlegm - Phlegmatic - Passive
What are 4 ways we can evaluate Personality theories?
- Avoid arguments ad-hominem
- Look at the explanatory power of the theory
- Refutability
- No one theory can explain all facets of personality (although some claim to)
What are 5 aspects of refutability?
- How verifyable/ testable is it?
- Are concepts clearly defined?
- Contradictions?
- Empirically testable?
- Falsifiability; can it be proved to be correct? (Popper)
Why think in terms of Personality? (5 Reasons)
- Framework for understanding `self’
- Way of related to others
- Way perceptions are organised
- Identification of drives, motivations
- Recurrent patterns and enduring traits
What is an example of an atheoretical (or inductive) personality test?
16PF
What is an example of a theory saturated (or deductive) personality test?
Blacky Pictured Test (Blum, 1950)
What is an example of an Empircal Personality Test (i.e. Using a Criterion Group)?
MMPI
The use of logic and reason in test development is sometimes referred to as the…
content or content-oriented approach to test development
Allport and Odbert (1936) distilled 18,000 personality traits into how many?
16
What is a 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
What are the features of a nomothetic approach to assessment?
- Generalisable
- Theoretical
- “What” and label
- Constructs/ Diagnoses
- Deviation from the group mean
- E.g. Factor Analytic
What are the features of an idiographic approach to assessment?
- Individualistic
- Result of a unique history (biological & contextual)
- “how” and “Why” and process
- Descriptive
- Commonalities and relatedness
- E.g. Biographical
There are 8 aspects of a self-report approach to assessment. What are they?
- Item response specified
- Typically paper and pencil
- Quantitative
- Scales purport specific attributes
- Thresholds identified
- Content generally informs respondent
- Reflect manifest aspects of self
- Scoring is prescribed
There are 7 aspects of a projective approach to assessment. What are they?
- Generated by the respondent
- Paper, Verbal, Other
- Qualitative, Quantitative
- Generally a Global Composite of Personality
- Instrument generally disguises are of appraisal/ interpretation
- Reveal covert, latent, unconscious aspects of self
- Scoring is systematised and open to interpretation
What is the lower age limit for the MMPI-2?
18
How many true/false items are included in the MMPI-2?
567
How many clinical scales, validity scales and supplemental scales are included in the MMPI-2?
10 clinical scales, 11 validity scales and 12 supplemental scales