W10 - personality assessment methods Flashcards
Methods of measuring personality
- objective
- projective
- behavioural
Projective methods of personality measurement
- indirect methods of personality assessment
- projective hypothesis
- “the most important things about an individual are what he cannot or will not say”
Inkblots as projective stimuli
Rorschach inkblots – Psychodiagnostik, Hermann Rorschach (1921)
- 10 bilaterally symmetrical inkblots on separate cards
- > 5 are achromatic (black and white)
- > 5 in colour
Classification debate
Inkblot test phases
3 distinct phases
- > Percept – “What do you see in this picture?”
- > Inquiry - “what made it look like ….” or “How do you see …”
- > Testing the limits – “Sometimes people use a part of the blot to see something” or “What does this look like”
Interpretation of the Rorschach test
Rorschach protocols are scored according to several categories
- Location
- Determinants
- Content
- Popularity
-> Rorschach died before he could finish a scoring manual
Validity and reliability of Rorschach test
- John Exner Jr. developed a comprehensive system for administering, scoring, and interpreting the Rorschach inkblots
- Exner’s system brought uniformity to Rorschach use, but despite the improvements, the psychometric properties of the Rorschach are still debated.
- Test-retest reliability is of little value to the Rorschach because of the very nature of the measurement; inter-rater reliability may be a more appropriate.
- > Does it seem to actually predict anything?
Thematic Apperception Test
Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray (1953)
30 picture cards contain a variety of scenes that present the test-taker with “certain classical human situations”
-> The administering clinician selects the cards that are believed to elicit responses pertinent to the objective of testing.
1 blank card
Interpretation of thematic apperceptive test
The material used in deriving conclusions includes:
- The stories
- The clinician’s notes
- > The way or manner of responding
- > extra-test behaviour and verbalisations
Interpretive systems incorporate or are based on Henry Murray’s concepts of:
-> Need, Press, Thema
Criticisms: implicit motives
Other tests using pictures
Pictures as Projective Stimuli (Projective Story-Telling)
-> make up a story to go with a picture
Apperceptive Personality Test (APT)
-> 8 stimulus cards
Hand test
-> 9+1 stimulus cards
Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study
- > Fill in the blank
- > Inquiry afterwards
Words as projective stimuli
Word Association Tests (WAT)
- semi structured, individually administered
- assessee is expected to respond with whatever comes to mind first upon exposure to the stimulus word
The Rapaport et al (1945) WAT (based on Jung, 1910)
- 60 items categorised into neutral and traumatic words
- normative data is provided regarding the percentage of occurrence of certain responses for college students and groups with schizophrenia
EX. for the word “mouth”
-> college group 20% kiss, 11% tongue, 11% lips, 11% eat
-> schizophrenia group 19% teeth, 10% eat
Sentence completion test
- fill in the blank spaces at the end of a sentence
- may be relatively atheoretical or linked closely to some theory
-> sentence completion stems may be developed for use in specific settings or for specific purposes
Sounds as projective stimuli
- not very widely used, redundant compared to TAT
Verbal summator
-> developed by BF Skinner “like auditory inkblots” (1979)
Figure drawing test
Assessee produces a drawing that is analysed on the basis of its content and related variables
- draw a person (DAP) test
- house-tree-person test
- kinetic family drawing (KFD)
Projective stimuli assumptions
- ambiguous stimuli = more insight into a subjects personality
- test-takers are unaware of what they are disclosing
- parallel with behaviour displayed in social situations
Criticisms of projective methods
Projective stimuli
- only one aspect of the total stimulus situation
- may not be as ambiguous and amenable to projection
- some assumptions are cherished beliefs
Methodological obstacles in researching projective tests
Uncontrolled variations in:
- Protocol length
- Inappropriate subject samples
- Inadequate control groups
- Poor external criteria
Methodological obstacles in researching projective tests
Uncontrolled variations in:
- Protocol length
- Inappropriate subject samples
- Inadequate control groups
- Poor external criteria
Objective tests, objective v projective
are affected by response styles, malingering and other sources of test bias (Meyer & Kurtz, 2006). Test-takers may also lack sufficient insight or perspective to respond “objectively” to test items.
Subjective tests, objective v projective
now also feature scoring systems use objective coding that provide empirical data
Weiner (2005) replacing objective and subjective with structured and unstructured
The more structured a test is, the more likely it is to tap relatively conscious aspects of personality.
By contrast, unstructured or ambiguous tests are more likely to access material beyond immediate, conscious awareness.
Behavioural assessment methods
Emphasis is on what a person does in situations rather than on inferences about what attributes they have more globally
Differences between traditional and behavioural approaches to assessment have to do with varying assumptions about:
- > Nature of personality
- > Causes of behaviour
Timeline followback (TLFB) methodology
Originally designed for use in the context of a clinical interview for the purpose of assessing alcohol abuse
Ecological; momentary assessment
Used to analyse the immediate antecedents of cigarette smoking
Why conduct behavioural assessment?
- To provide behavioural baseline data
- To provide a record of the assessee’s behavioural strengths and weaknesses
- To pinpoint environmental conditions that are acting to trigger, maintain, or extinguish certain behaviours
- To target specific behavioural patterns for modification through interventions
- To create graphic displays
Types of behavioural assessment
- behavioural observation
- behavioural rating scale
- self-monitoring
- analogue behavioural observation
- situational performance measure
- psychophysiological methods
Behavioural observation
watching the activities of targeted clients or research subjects and, typically, maintaining some kind of record of those activities.
Behavioural rating scale
a preprinted sheet on which the observer notes the presence or intensity of targeted behaviours, usually by checking boxes or filling in coded terms
Self-monitoring
the act of systematically observing and recording aspects of one’s own behaviour and/or events related to that behaviour
Analogue behavioural observation and situational performance measure
Analogue behavioural observation
-> the observation of a person in an environment designed to increase the chance that the assessor can observe targeted behaviours and interactions.
Situational performance measure
- > Procedure that allows for observation and evaluation for an individual under a standard set of circumstances
- -> Leaderless group technique
- -> Role play
Psychophysiological methods of behavioural assessment
the use of physiological indices in psychological assessment
- biofeedback
- plethysmograph
- polygraph
Biofeedback
designed to gauge, display, and record a continuous monitoring of selected biological processes
e.g. heart rate and blood pressure
Plethysmograph
instrument that records changes in the volume of a part of the body arising from variations in blood supply, been used to examine normal, anxiety-ridden, and psychoneurotic populations
Polygraph
commonly referred to as a ‘lie detector’ however there is a high false-positive rate for lying where more than 50% of the innocent subjects are labelled as guilty
Issues in behavioural assessment
- an acceptable level of inter-rater reliability needed
- equipment and cost of training behavioural assessors
Contrast effect
-> solution - composite judgement
Reactivity effect
-> solution - have an adaptation period
-> Hawthorne effect - participants themselves may improve or modify their behaviour which is being measured experimentally
Issues in behavioural assessment
- an acceptable level of inter-rater reliability needed
- equipment and cost of training behavioural assessors
Contrast effect
-> solution - composite judgement
Reactivity effect
-> solution - have an adaptation period
-> Hawthorne effect - participants themselves may improve or modify their behaviour which is being measured experimentally
