W9 - overview

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

traits or characteristics which are unique to an individual, and are relatively stable over time

Question 2

Personality assessment

Answer 2

the measurement and evaluation of psychological traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of humour, cognitive and behavioural styles, and/or other characteristics

Question 3

Why assess personality?

Answer 3

Personality is predictive of real-world outcomes

Organisations use personality assessment when recruiting – what type of people do we want for this role?

Assessment might inform clinical diagnosis for personality disorders

Question 4

Trait

Answer 4

“any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another”

Question 5

Personality type

Answer 5

a constellation of traits that is similar in pattern to one identified category of personality within a taxonomy of personalities

Question 6

State

Answer 6

the transitory experience of some personality trait, a relatively temporary disposition

Relatively short term/situation dependent.

Measuring states amounts to a search for, and an assessment of, the strength of traits that are relatively transitory or situation-specific.

Question 7

Personality traits

Answer 7

Attributions -> to identify threads of consistency in behaviour patterns

• can be context-specific
• often not consistent cross-situationally

Allport (1937) argued that people have cardinal (dominant), central (everyone has these), and secondary (specific) traits

Question 8

Personality type theory evolution over time

Answer 8

Types were first used by Hippocrates (melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric, and sanguine).

Jung (1923) typology:
focuses on how people judge (thinking and feeling) and perceive (sensation and intuition), later adapted into the MBTI.

John Holland argued that most people can be categorised as one of six personality types:
RIASEC – realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional

Question 9

Friedman and Rosenman (1974) two personality types

Answer 9

Type A personality: a personality type characterised by competitiveness, haste, restlessness, impatience, feelings of being time-pressured, and strong needs for achievement and dominance

Type B personality: a personality type that is completely opposite of type A personality, characterised as being mellow or laid back.

Question 10

Personality assessment: Who?

Answer 10

Who is being assessed and who is assessing?
-> Self-report (S) vs Informant (I) data

Self-report methods (S-data) to explore:

• > Self-concept: one’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and related thoughts about oneself
• > Self-concept differentiation: the degree to which a person has different self-concepts in different roles

Informant reports (I-data) to explore

• > Concepts and concept differentiation from another perspective
• > Biases possible - e.g., halo effect, or error of central tendency

Question 11

Personality assessment: What?

Answer 11

What is assessed when a personality assessment is conducted?

• particular traits (e.g., reward sensitivity), states (e.g., test anxiety), or personality profiles (e.g., ENFJ); OR
• descriptions of behaviour, usually in particular contexts

Pitfalls in personality assessment:

• Impression management (e.g., social desirability)
• Response styles
• > Solution: include validity scales to test honesty

Question 12

Personality assessment: Where?

Answer 12

Where are personality assessments conducted?

Traditional sites include schools, clinics, hospitals, academic research labs, employment counselling, vocational selection centres, and the offices of psychologists and counsellors.

Personality assessors can also be found observing behaviour and making assessments in natural settings (B-data).

Question 13

Personality assessment: How?

Answer 13

How are personality assessments structured and conducted?

Instruments vary:
- Broad scope (general profile/inventory) vs narrow scope (i.e., reward sensitivity)
- many different methodologies
–> F2F interviews, case study, CATs, …
- structured vs relatively unstructured
- level of theory behind the assessment
Examples: Frame of reference and Q-sort technique

Question 14

Developing personality measures

Answer 14

Content / content-orientated approach

• Logic and reason may dictate what content is covered by the items on a personality test
• “The rational” approach
• Literature review to help guide a blueprint

Theory approach

• A theory as basis for personality measure?
• Or atheoretical?

Data reduction methods are another class of widely used tool on contemporary test development (e.g., factor analysis).

Question 15

Developing personality measures: exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Answer 15

Determines the number and “content” of latent constructs (factors) that underlie a given set of observed variables
-> Used when latent structure is unknown or uncertain (e.g., when developing a new scale/testing a scale on a previously untested sample)

• EFA is data-driven: aim is to find order out of chaos
• EFA analyses patterns of correlations among scores on measured variables and tells us how the items group together in latent factors
  Example: The Big Five Personality Traits

Question 16

EFA and the Big Five

Answer 16

• 1930’s Allport et al. decided that we needed a taxonomy for describing personality structure
• He believed that “important” traits would be well-represented in language so compiled 4,504 adjectives from the dictionary which described observable and permanent traits (theoretical lexical approach)
• Cattell (1940) retained the adjectives but eliminated synonyms to reduce the total to 171 adjectives
• Reduced to 16 trait dimensions (based on clusters of interrelated traits determined by factor analysis)
• McCrae & Costa 1970’s: Eventually became a 5 factor solution after administering the personality test to 1000’s of people

Question 17

EFA benefits and drawbacks

Answer 17

Can be useful

• Detects patterns of covariation among items (trait terms)
• Reduces number of dimensions

Has drawbacks

• Content and number of factors are item-dependent
• -> If you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out
• Labelling of factors is highly subjective
• Researcher has no “control”

Question 18

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

Answer 18

Designed to assess how well a hypothesised factor structure fits the observed data

Theory driven
-> used when researchers have some knowledge about the underlying factor structure

CFA is a test of the meaningfulness of variables and their indicators

Question 19

Key concepts

Answer 19

• Criterion
• a standard on which a judgement or decision can be made.
• Criterion group
• a reference group of test-takers who share specific characteristics and whose responses to tests serve as a standard according to which items will be included or discarded from the final version of the scale.
• Empirical criterion keying
• the process of using criterion groups to develop test items. The shared characteristic of the criterion group to research will vary as a function of the nature and scope of the test

Question 20

MMPI: 3 scales to combat inherent self-report problems

Answer 20

• The L (lie) scale calls into question the examinee’s honesty.
• The F (frequency) scale contains items that are infrequently endorsed by non-psychiatric populations and do not fall into any known pattern of deviance, which can help determine how serious an examinee takes the test, as well as identify malingering.
• The K (correction) score is associated with defensiveness and social desirability.
• > A fourth scale, the Cannot Say scale (denoted with ?), functions as a frequency count of the number of items to which the examinee responded cannot say or failed to mark any response (cut-off > 30)

Question 21

Development of the MMPI-2

Answer 21

• The MMPI-2 was normed on a more representative standardisation sample.
• Some content was rewritten to correct grammatical errors and to make the language more contemporary and less discriminatory.
• Items were added that addressed topics such as drug abuse, suicidality, marital adjustment, attitudes towards work, and Type A behaviour patterns.
• Three additional validity scales were added:
• -> Back-Page Infrequency (Fb), True Response Inconsistency (TRIN), Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN)

Question 22

MMPI-2-RF

Answer 22

The MMPI-2 RF was devised in response to two basic problems with the MMPI-2:

• > Overlapping items: per pair of clinical scales, there was an average of more than six overlapping items in the MMPI-2.
• > A pervasive factor (referred to anxiety, despair, malaise, and maladjustment) that was common to most forms of psychopathology but unique to none.

Question 23

MMPI-A (and MMPI-A-RF)

Answer 23

The MMPI-A was developed in response to scepticism about the applicability of the MMPI to adolescents.

• Contains 16 basic scales, including 10 clinical and 6 validity scales.
• Also contains six supplementary scales (dealing with areas such as drug use and immaturity), 15 content scales (such as addressing conduct problems), 28 Harris-Lingoes scales, and three scales labelled Social Introversion.
• Widely accepted to measure psychopathology in adolescents

Question 24

Personality Assessment and Culture

Answer 24

An assessee’s worldview must be considered
- their unique way of interpreting their perceptions as a result of their experiences, cultural background, and related variables.

The concept of personality identity, or one’s sense of self.
- Levine and Padilla (1980) defined identification as the process by which an individual assumes a pattern of behaviour characteristic of other people.

Question 25

Acculturation

Answer 25

Is the ongoing process by which an individual’s thoughts, behaviours, values, worldview, and identity develop in relation to the thinking, behaviour, customs, and values of a particular cultural group.
-> begins at birth, and proceeds throughout development.

Question 26

Values and acculturation

Answer 26

Understanding values is important when considering acculturation.
Instrumental values
–> guiding principles to help one attain some objective
Terminal values
–> guiding principles and a mode of behaviour that is an endpoint objective

Kluckhohn (1954; 1960) conceived values as answers to key questions which civilisations must grapple.
-> E.g., idealised collectivism in some countries vs. idealised individualism in others.