Title: Personality Testing
1Personality Testing
2Definition of Personality
Personality refers to factors inside people
that explain their behavior (MacKinnon,
1944). The sum total of typical ways of acting,
thinking, and feeling that makes a person
unique.
3History of Personality
- Ancient Greeks characterized human character by
excessive influence of bodily fluids blood,
yellow black bile, and phlegm. - Early psychological examinations looked at
psychopathology. - By the 1930s researchers started looking at the
structure of everyday behaviour. Came up with
universal traits.
4Traits
- Relatively enduring patterns of behavior
(thinking, acting, and feeling) that are
relatively consistent across situations. - Trait Examples
- - introvert
- extrovert
- assertiveness
- persistence (Mayer)
- narcissism
- Resilience
- -locus of control
5The Trait Theory
Many agree that five basic traits provide a
complete description of our personalities. They
are
Openness - refers to open-minded thinking and
interest
Conscientiousness - refers to how organized and
persistent we are in pursuing our goals.
Extroversion - refers to the preference for,
behavior in social situations
Agreeableness - refers to how well we tend to
interact with others
Neuroticism - refers to the tendency to
experience negative thoughts and feelings.
Additions to the Big Five? Honesty, Respect,
Integrity,.
6 How Personality is AssessedFrank
(1939) stated that an initial difficulty in the
study of personality is the lack of any clear cut
conception of what is to be studied.- construct
validity issues
7 What Are Projective Tests?
A projective test uses ambiguous stimuli
designed to reveal the contents of the clients
unconscious mind.
8 What Are Objective Tests?
In an objective test, no attempt is made to
subjectively understand what the person means by
answer to each question.
9What Make a Good Personality Measure
Interpretability - Broad vs. Narrow (more
reliable) Stability - Are tests valid? -
Are they reliable? - Are they standardized?
10How is Personality Different from Mood?
- Temporal stability short vs. long term?
- Assumed etiology/cause situation specific vs.
person-centered? - Assumed mutability changeable or stable?
11Objective Tests
- Examples
- 16PF
- Myers Briggs Inventory (better to use the
NEO-PI) - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI)
12The MMPI-2
- 567 item, T/F inventory developed using an
empirical approach - Criterion group validation (T gt 65)
- Low face validity (see Burisch criteria)
- Validity scales (e.g., L, K, F, Fb, S, VRIN/TRIN)
- Primary clinical
- Restructured clinical
- Content/Content component
- Supplemental
13Subjective Tests
- TAT
- Rorschach using Exner scoring system
- Location
- Determinant
- Content
- Popular