Personality Assessment

These flashcards cover key concepts and vocabulary related to personality assessment, including testing methods, theories, and their advantages and disadvantages.

Barnum Effect

The tendency for people to find generally worded personality descriptions of themselves persuasive, even when everybody is given the same description.

Objective Tests

Standardized assessments answered using a limited set of responses, consistent with the Trait approach to studying personality.

Projective Hypothesis

The theory that responses to ambiguous stimuli reveal nonconscious needs, feelings, and experiences.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A projective test that uses inkblots to assess a person's personality and emotional functioning.

Thematic Apperception Test

A projective test that requires participants to create stories about ambiguous scenes to reveal underlying motives and concerns.

Self-esteem scales

Objective tests that assess a single trait or attribute, measuring an individual's self-worth.

NEO Personality Inventory

A comprehensive assessment that evaluates the five major domains of personality.

Behavioral and Performance Measures

Methods of assessing personality based on direct behavioral observations and performance.

Expectancy effects

The influences that expectations held by significant others can have on an individual's behavior over time.

Advantages of Projective Tests

Better at assessing implicit motives than objective tests.

Disadvantages of Projective Tests

Cumbersome to score and not as reliable and valid as objective measures.