topic 3 - personality assessment

Question 1

what is aggregation?

Answer 1

means of enhancing the reliability of a measurement by averaging numerous measures

Question 2

what is the theory behind projective tests?

Answer 2

the meaning or significance we impart to ambiguous stimuli (such as inkblots) do not come from the stimuli themselves (they are inherently meaningless).
descriptions given by participants reveal inner psychological needs, feelings, experiences, or thought processes

Question 3

what are the advantages of projective tests?

Answer 3

1. good for breaking the ice in a clinical setting

2. some skilled clinicians may be able to use them to get information not captured by controlled research

Question 4

what are the disadvantages of projective tests?

Answer 4

1. validity and reliability evidence is scarce
2. expensive and time-consuming
3. a psychologist cannot be sure about what they mean
4. sometimes used inappropriately (in court)

Question 5

where are projective tests used locally?

Answer 5

• legal system
• royal psychiatric centre
• clinical psychology graduate program (uSask)

Question 6

rational method of objective tests

Answer 6

• write items that seem directly, obviously, and rationally related to what is to be measured
• most common form of test construction

Question 7

what are the four conditions for validity in rational objective tests?

Answer 7

• items mean the same thing to the test taker and creator
• capability for accurate self-assessment
• willingness to make an accurate and undistorted report
• items must be valid indicators of what is being measured

Question 8

what is factor analysis?

Answer 8

a statistical technique that identifies groups of items that seem to have something in common

Question 9

what are the steps for using the factor analytic method of objective tests?

Answer 9

1. generate a long list of objective items
2. administer these items to a large number of people
3. analyze with factor analysis
4. consider what the items that group together have in common and name the factor

Question 10

what are the steps for using the empirical method of objective tests?

Answer 10

1. gather lots of item
2. have a sample of people already divided into groups (clinical, occupational status)
3. administer the test
4. compare the answers of the different groups
5. cross-validation

Question 11

what is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)?

Answer 11

the first omnibus inventory, developed in 1942 using the empirical method

Question 12

what is the definition of statistical significance?

Answer 12

a result that would only occur by chance less than 5% of the time

Question 13

what is null hypothesis significance testing?

Answer 13

the traditional method of statistical data analysis that determines the chance of getting the result if nothing were really going on (by chance)

Question 14

what is a t test?

Answer 14

statistical procedure used to determine if there is a significant difference between the means of two groups

Question 15

what is a correlation coefficient?

Answer 15

a statistical measure that calculates the strength of the relationship between the relative movements of two variables

Question 16

what is effect size?

Answer 16

an index of the magnitude or strength of the relationship between the variables

Question 17

what is publication bias?

Answer 17

studies with strong (and more interesting) results are more likely to get published than studies with weak results, leading to a published literature that makes net effects seem stronger than they really are

Question 18

what is p-hacking?

Answer 18

hacking around in data until you find the necessary degree of statistical significance needed to publish

Question 19

what is the Barnum effect?

Answer 19

a common psychological phenomenon whereby individuals give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically to them, that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people