*behavioural assessment

Personality Assessment

  • Methods of Personality Measurement

    • Six methods can be utilized to measure personality:

    1. Interview Data:

      • Focuses on gathering information about experiences, self-concept, and how individuals perceive their own behaviors.

    2. Reports and Ratings:

      • Assessments made by others (friends, family, colleagues) based on perceived traits and can be compared with self-ratings.

    3. Behavioral Assessment:

      • Involves the collection of a representative sample of behavior in real-life contexts through observation.

    4. Personality Scales:

      • Utilizes standard self-report questionnaires for objective measurement of traits and consistency.

    5. Projective Tests:

      • Interpreting responses to ambiguous stimuli, revealing underlying thoughts, motives, and personal conflicts, based on the projective hypothesis that individuals project their personalities onto stimuli.

    6. Physiological Measures:

      • Focus on biological aspects of personality, such as emotional reactivity and cortical arousal levels.Behavioural Assessments

  • Structured Interview Definition and Purpose

    • Psychological assessments that focus on direct observation of behaviors rather than self-reported data.

    • Use of a coding system with behavioral categories to train observers until high inter-rater reliability is achieved.

    • Reliability indicates agreement among different observers regarding observed behaviors.

    • Aims to elucidate how often and under what conditions behaviors occur.

    • Identifies "behavioral signatures" of individuals.

  • Three Fundamental Questions Addressed by Behavioural Assessments

    1. What specifically does the person do that causes the problem?

    2. How often and under what conditions does it occur?

    3. What outcomes do the behaviors produce?

    • These questions assist in identifying situational causes and differences in personality, enabling a clearer understanding of the individual’s behavioral patterns.

Remote Behaviour Sampling Procedures

  • Purpose of Remote Behaviour Sampling

    • Since it is impractical for psychologists to observe individuals continuously, this method allows for the collection of real-time data regarding thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

    • Participants passive data entry and recording provide insights into their current state and situational contexts.

  • Data Collection Process

    • Participants receive prompts to report their current thoughts, feelings, or behaviors along with the situation they find themselves in.

    • This ongoing process can extend over weeks or months, thereby gathering extensive samples across varied situations.

    • This helps reveal patterns of personality functioning that may not be observable using traditional methods.

Personality Test Development Approaches

  • General Overview

    • Personality scales or inventories are objective measures utilizing standardized sets of questions with a defined scoring key.

    • Advantages:

      • Facilitates data collection from large populations.

      • Allows standardized scoring, contributing to consistency in results.

    • Disadvantages:

      • Potential for dishonesty in responses or individuals attempting to create a positive impression.

      • Validity scales are employed to detect socially desirable or falsely presented responses.

  • Contrast of Rational and Empirical Approaches

    • Rational Approach

    • Items are formulated based on a theorist's conceptualization of traits.

    • Questions reflect self-descriptions typical of those possessing the trait in question (e.g., introversion-extraversion).

    • Example:

      • NEO-PI: Measures the Big Five personality traits (Costa & McCrae).

    • Empirical Approach

    • Items are selected due to their proven capability to distinguish between groups (e.g., individuals with or without a psychological disorder).

    • Example:

      • MMPI/MMPI-2: Developed by Hathaway & McKinley in 1983, focuses on diagnosing psychological conditions by measuring personality structure.

Projective Tests

  • Underlying Assumption of Projective Tests

    • The primary assumption is that when individuals are presented with ambiguous stimuli, their reactions unveil unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motives, essentially projecting their inner world onto the stimuli.

  • Widely Used Projective Tests

    • Rorschach Inkblot Test

    • Consists of ten inkblots (five in black and white, five in color).

    • Participants describe what each inkblot resembles, allowing the test administrator to document responses based on content, tone, and observable behaviors.

    • Critiques involve subjective interpretation; however, revisions in scoring systems have been developed to enhance reliability.

    • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

    • Utilizes ambiguous images depicting people or scenes.

    • Participants narrate a story based on the prompts about what is happening in the image, what led to the event, and what transpires next.

    • The derived themes allow insights into an individual's motives, needs, emotions, and interpersonal relationships.

    • Similar to the Rorschach, it may encounter issues with subjective interpretation but remains a useful tool in psychological assessment.