PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

McClelland

defined personality as “the most adequate conceptualization of a person’s behavior in all its details.

Menninger

defined personality as the individual as a whole, his height and weight and love and hates and blood pressure and reflexes. His smiles and hopes and bowed legs and enlarged tonsils. It means all that anyone is and that he is trying to become

Byrne

characterized the entire area of personality psychology as “psychology’s garbage bin in that any research which doesn’t fit other existing categories can be labeled ‘personality.’ ”

Personality

an individual’s unique constellation of psychological traits that is relatively stable over time

Personality Assessment

May be defined as the measurement and evaluation of psychological traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of humor, cognitive and behavior styles, and/or related individual characteristics.

Gordon Allport

Defined personality traits as a real physical entities that are “bona fide mental structures in each personality”

Robert Holt

Defined personality traits as real structures inside people that determine their behavior in lawful ways

Raymond Cattell

Defined personality traits as mental structures, but structure do not imply actual physical status

Guilford

Defined personality traits as any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from one another

NEO-PI-R

Provides systematic assessment of emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal and motivational styles..

240

How many items are in the NEO-PI–R questionnaire?

17 and over

What is the suitable age for clients taking the NEO-PI-R

NEO-PI-3

Latest version of NEO-PI-R

Paul Costa & Robert McCrae

Proponents of the Big Five Factor Theory

Personality Types

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

descriptions

If traits are characteristics, what are types?

• Melancholic

• Phelgmatic

• Choleric

• Sanguine

Hippocrates’ Classification of People are divided into four temperaments and predominant humors such as

Sanguine

literal meaning is red, like blood

Sanguine

describes someone who is ruddy in complexion, presumably from copious blood flowing through the body, cheerful and optimistic, although insomnia and delirium were thought to be caused by excessive blood in the brain.

Melancholic

black and means depressive

Phlegmatic

cold and indicates apathy and sluggishness but can also mean being calm under stress.

Choleric

yellow and means hot tempered

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

An assumption guiding the development of this test was that people exhibit definite preferences in the way they perceive or become aware of– and judge or arrive at conclusions about people, events, situations and ideas.

Raymond Cattell

Created the 16 Personality Factor Test (16PF)

16 Personality Factor Test (16PF)

It is a self report assessment instrument that measures the 16 normal adult personality dimensions

16 and over

Age range for 16PF

John Holland

He argued that most people can be categorized as one of the following 6 personality types (artistic, enterprising, investigative, social, realistic conventional)

1. Artistic

2. Enterprising

3. Investigative

4. Social

5. Realistic

6. Conventional

6 Personaliy Types by John Holland

Meyer Friedman & Ray Rosenman

Cardiologists who categorize people into two (Type A personality and Type B personality)

Type A Personality

characterized by by competitiveness, restlessness, impaience, feelings og being time-pressured, and strong needs for achievement and dominance

Type B Personality

mellow or laid back personality, opposite of the other type’s trait

Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS)

self-report inventory that has been used to type respondents as Type A or B personalities

MMPI

The personality typology that has attracted the most attention from researchers and actitioners alike is associated with scores on a test.

MMPI

Data from the administration of these tests, as with others, are frequently discussed in terms of the patterns of scores that emerge on the subtest.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Meaning of MMPI

Profile

narrative description, graph, table, or other representation of the extent to which a person has demonstrated certain targeted characteristic as a result of the administration or application of tools of assessment

Personality profile

the targeted characteristics are typically traits, states, or types

MMPI -> MMPI-2 -> MMPI-2-RF

Evolution of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

MMPI

published in 1943 to measure various types of psychopathology

1. Hypochondriasis

2. Depression

3. Hysteria

4. Psychopathic Deviate

5. Masculinity-Femininity

6. Paranoia

7. Psychasthenia

8. Schizophrenia

9. Mania

10. Social Introversion

10 clinical scales in MMPI

Hypochondriasis

Hs

Depression

D

Hysteria

Hy

Psychopathic Deviate

Pd

Masculinity/Femininity

Mf

Paranoia

Pa

Psychasthenia

Pt

Schizophrenia

Sc

Hypomania

Ma

Social Introversion

Si

Hypochondriasis

32 item scale that measures a wide range of vague and non-specific complaints about bodily functioning.

Depression

57 item scale that is characterized by hopelessness, poor morale, and dissatisfaction with own life

Hysteria

60 item scale that measures shyness, poor physical health, headaches, neuroticism, and cynicism

Psychopathic Deviate

50 item scale that measures social adjustment and the absence of strongly pleasant experiences. Aps issues in family and authority

Masculinity/Femininity

56 item scale that measures how rigidly the client conforms to the stereotypical roles of male/female. Has items about vocations, hobbies, aesthetic preferences, activity-passivity, and personal sensitivity

Paranoia

40 item scale that measures suspiciousness, interpersonal sensitivity, and self-righteousness

Psychasthenia

48 item scale that measures person’s inability to counter specific actions or thoughts even it is maladaptive in nature

Psychasthenia

 this is an old term of OCD and the items are tapping into abnormal fears, difficulties in concentration, and guilt feelings

Schizophrenia

78 item scale that measures odd perceptions, social alienation, poor family relationships, impulse control, and concentration difficulties, questions of self-worth and identity, and bizarre thoughts

Hypomania

46 item scale that measures a degree of excitement, unstable mood, flight of ideas, grandiosity, irritability, psychomotor excitement, overactivity, and egocentricity

Social Introversion

69 item scale that measures the degree to which you seek out or withdraw from social interactions.

Beck Anxiety Inventory

Meaning of BAI

Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

Focuses on anxiety rather than depression. For 17-80 years old.

21 items. 5-10 minutes

How long is BAI?

Aaron Beck

the creator of BAI and BDI

Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)

Assess symptoms of depression in clients age 13-80

21 items. 5-10 minutes

How long is BDI-II?

strong

The psychometric data in BDI is quite strong or weak?

Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

Meaning of RSE Scale

Morris Rosenberg

Full name of the creator of RSE scale

RSE

a 10 item scale that measures self-esteem which was initially intended for high school students, but was developed to be used with variety of groups

1. Psychodynamic disposition

2. Transitory Exhibition of Traits

The term "state" in personality assessment has two different meanings such as

Psychodynamic Disposition

This usage of “state” refers to the inferred conflicts among the id, ego, and superego. Assessment techniques include free association, word association, dream analysis, and analyzing slips of the tongue or other errors.

Transitory Exhibition of Traits

The more popular usage of “state” refers to temporary expressions of personality traits. A trait is a stable behavioral predisposition, while a state indicates a temporary condition.

Measuring Personality States

This involves assessing the strength of traits that are temporary or situation-specific. Few personality tests differentiate between traits and states.

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)

this inventory distinguishes between state anxiety (temporary tension due to a specific situation) and trait anxiety (a stable personality characteristic).

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

meaning of STAI

Charles D. Spielberger

developed STAI

STAI

this inventory consists of statements asking participants to indicate either how they feel "right now" or how they generally feel.

Primary referent

In self-report, the self is the _

Self report

a process wherein information about assesses is supplied by the assesses themselves

Self-concept

one’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions and related thoughts about oneself

Self-concept measure

an instrument designed to yield information relevant to how individual sees himself/herself with regard to selected psychological variables

Self-concept differentiation

the degree to which a person has different self-concepts in different roles.

Leniency Error or generosity error

an error in rating that arises from the tendency on the part of the rater to be lenient in scoring, marking, and/or grading

Severity error

a type of rating error where raters consistently give overly negative or harsh assessments, often leading to undeservedly low scores

Error of central tendency

the rater, for whatever reason, exhibits a general and systematic reluctance to giving ratings at either the positive or the negative extreme

Halo Effect

a tendency to give a particular ratee a higher rating than the ratee objectively deserves because of the rater’s failure to discriminate among conceptually distinct and potentially independent aspects of a ratee’s behavior.

Response Style

refers to a tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of the item or question.

Acquiescent

a pattern of responding which an individual may be apt to respond yes or true than no or false.

Impression Management

used to describe the attempt to manipulate others’ impressions through “selective exposure of some information (it may be false information)….coupled with suppression of [other] information.

Enhancement

Claiming positive attitude

Denial

rejecting negative attributes

Validity Scale

as a subscale of a test designed to assist in judgments regarding how honestly the testtaker responded and whether observed responses were products of response style, carelessness, deliberate efforts to deceive, or unintentional misunderstanding..

Acquiescence

agree with whatever is presented

Nonacquiescence

disagree with whatever is presented

Deviance

make unusual or uncommon responses

Gambling/cautiousness

guess–or not guess– when in doubt

Overly positive

claim extreme virtue through self-presentation in a superlative manner

Frame of Reference

aspects of focus of exploration such as the time frame (the past, present or future) as well as other contextual issues that involve people, places and events