Some Basic Questions: Personality Assessment

Personality Assessment

The process of measuring and evaluating an individual’s thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and traits to answer specific referral questions about functioning, adjustment, abilities, and personality structure.

Referral Questions

Questions that guide why a personality assessment is being done, such as suitability for employment, military service, psychotherapy needs, academic issues, or effects of neurological trauma.

Uses of Personality Assessment in Research

Includes studying health knowledge, relationship commitment types, team dynamics, terrorism risk, trait development, moral judgment, and links between personality and health disorders.

Cross-species Personality Research

Studies personality in animals (e.g., dogs, gorillas) to explore environmental effects on personality and heritability of traits.

Self-Report

A method where assessees describe their own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or traits through interviews, questionnaires, diaries, or tests.

Self-Concept

One’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and thoughts about oneself; often measured through dedicated self-concept tests.

Self-Concept Differentiation

The degree to which a person views themselves differently across social roles; high differentiation = variable self-image, low differentiation = coherent, unified self-image.

Faking Good

Presenting oneself in an overly positive manner to appear more socially desirable, competent, or mentally healthy.

Faking Bad

Exaggerating psychological problems for external gain (e.g., avoiding prison, gaining disability benefits).

Insight Limitation in Self-Reports

Some individuals may lack awareness of their thoughts or behaviors, affecting accuracy; others may have high insight but still benefit from structured reflection.

Informant Reports

Personality or behavior information provided by someone who knows the assessee well (e.g., parents, teachers, spouses, peers).

Personality Inventory for Children (PIC / PIC-2)

A standardized parent-report measure assessing a child’s personality and behavior through true–false items.

Rater Bias

Any error introduced by a rater’s tendencies, such as leniency, harshness, central tendency, or halo effect.

Leniency Error (Generosity Error)

Tendency to rate others overly positively.

Severity Error

Tendency to rate others overly negatively.

Central Tendency Error

Rating most individuals around the midpoint of a scale.

Halo Effect

When one positive trait influences the rater to give overly favorable ratings on unrelated traits.

Cultural Considerations in Personality Assessment

Evaluating whether a test is fair and valid for people from diverse cultural or linguistic backgrounds; includes test development, administration, and score interpretation.

Primary Content Area Sampled

The specific domain a personality test measures—traits, states, behaviors, attitudes, or conditions.

Response Style

A characteristic way a person responds to test items regardless of content (e.g., always answering “true”).

Acquiescence

A response style where the testtaker tends to agree with items (answers “true” or “yes”).

Impression Management

The deliberate attempt to influence how others perceive you through selective disclosure or concealment of information.

Validity Scale

Subscales in personality tests used to detect honesty, consistency, response bias, carelessness, or deliberate deception.

Enhancement

Claiming positive attributes that may be exaggerated.

Denial

Rejecting or minimizing negative attributes.

Self-Deception

Providing overly positive but sincerely believed descriptions of oneself.

Where Personality Assessments Occur

Schools, clinics, hospitals, labs, counseling centers, workplaces, and natural environments (homes, prisons).

Scope of Personality Assessment

How broad or narrow an assessment is; may measure multiple traits (wide) or focus on one construct (narrow).

Wide Scope Personality Test

Measures many different traits; e.g., California Psychological Inventory (CPI-434).

Narrow Scope Personality Test

Measures a single trait or concept; e.g., Locus of Control scales.

Locus of Control

A person’s belief about what controls events in their life—internal (self-driven) or external (fate/others).

Theory-Based Personality Test

ools built directly on psychological theory (e.g., psychodynamic); example: Blacky Pictures Test (Freudian concepts).

Atheoretical Personality Test

Tests built without a strong guiding theory; example: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).