Personality
Assessment
Goals
1. Understand the roles of personality assessment
2. Understand the main ways of assessing personality that
have been proposed/developed, with strengths and
weaknesses
3. Understand unique challenges to personality assessment
4. Understand how to evaluate the quality of a personality
assessment
5. Insight into two or three of the most popular personality
“tests” – strengths/weaknesses
Role of Personality Assessment
Where is personality assessment done?
Discuss
HR
I/O Consultants
Testing companies (e.g., PAR, Pearson)
Clinical practice
Dating
Role of Personality Assessment
Where is personality assessment done?
• Formal/Professional Venues
• Empirical Research
• Everyday life
Types of Personality Assessment
What types of personality assessment are you
familiar with?
If we wanted to know if one person is more
extraverted than another, how could we find out?
Discuss
Types of Personality Assessment
Clues to Personality (Kinds of data):
•
•
Why “clue”?
Each method has advantages & disadvantages
1. Self-report data
• Examples?
• Pros/cons?
BFI
Neuroticism
Note: Images borrowed from http://mgto.org/personality-inclass-discussing-traits-through-examples/
BFI
SD
“68% range”
Trait
Mean
Neuroticism
2.8
Extraversion
3.5
.7
2.8 – 4.2
Openness
3.3
.7
2.6 – 4.0
Agreeableness
4.0
.6
3.4 – 4.6
Conscientiousness
3.7
.7
3.0 – 4.4
.8
Neuroticism
Note: Normative data are from 255 in Fall 2009, N = 38
2.0 - 3.6
Personality Research Methods
Personality Assessment - Methods
2. “Informant” data
• Examples
• Pros/cons
(Nearly) First impression ratings
of “row-mates”
Neuroticism: (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident). The tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such
as anger, anxiety, depression, and vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of emotional “liveliness.”
Extraversion: (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved). Energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness,
sociability and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, and talkativeness.
Openness to experience: (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious). Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure,
unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience. Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity
and a preference for novelty and variety a person has. It is also described as the extent to which a person is
imaginative or independent, and depicts a personal preference for a variety of activities over a strict routine.
Agreeableness: (friendly/compassionate vs. analytical/detached). A tendency to
be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. It is also a measure of one's
trusting and helpful nature, and whether a person is generally well tempered or not.
Conscientiousness: (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless). A tendency to be organized and dependable,
show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
Personality Research Methods
Personality Assessment - Methods
4. Life Outcomes
• Examples
• Pros/cons
Personality Research Methods
Personality Assessment - Methods
3. Behavioral data
• “Natural” B data (eg, ESM, EAR, ARRB)
• “Laboratory” B data (in-lab obs, exp, pro, pro)
• Pros/cons
Challenges to Personality Assessment
What are some of the fundamental challenges
that complicate personality assessment?
Discuss
Examples:
• Social desirability
• Self-insight
• Hypothetical constructs
• No “direct access” to the qualities of the
objects
Personality Assessment
What is being measured?
Many personality variables are “theoretical
constructs” or “latent variables”
Unseen characteristics that we assume exist
somewhere inside the person.
Personality Research Methods
Personality Assessment
Subject’s
Extraversion
# of friends in
social
network
Subject’s self-report
Score on BFI
Extraversion Scale
Subject’s
Talkativeness
Friend’s rating of
subject’s
Extraversion
Personality Assessment
What is being measured?
Many personality variables are “theoretical
constructs” or “latent variables”
Unseen characteristics that we assume exist
somewhere inside the person.
Is this unique to personality psych?
• Memory, attention, hunger
• Gravity
Personality Assessment
Direct Access to qualities of objects?
Unique to personality?
How to measure “talkativeness”?
How to measure existence of a planet?
How to measure length of a piece of lumber?
Personality Assessment - Quality
Quality of measurement
How do we know if a personality assessment
technique or tool is good?
Two facets of measurement quality:
• Reliability
• Construct Validity
Personality Assessment - Quality
Reliability
• Is the “observed” score a precise reflection of the “true”
characteristic (whatever that characteristic might be)
• If we do the measurement over and over, do we get the
same score each time? Do we consistently get the same
score?
2 Kinds of reliability
• Test-retest reliability
• Internal Consistency reliability
Personality Assessment - Quality
Construct Validity
• What is the characteristics that’s reflected by
the test score?
• Does the test measure what its supposed to
measure?
• E.g., if we have a questionnaire that supposedly
measures depression – does it really measure
depression?
• Depression is the “construct”, is our test a valid
measure of that construct?
Personality Assessment - Quality
Mike’s Brief Neuroticism Questionnaire (MBNQ)
Circle yes or no for each statement:
1. I often get worried
2. I often hear strange voices
3. I have a fear of heights
4. I often get stressed out
5. I like animals
6. My favorite color is blue
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
Personality Assessment - Quality
How can we empirically evaluate a scale’s construct
validity?
1. Content validity
2. Convergent validity
3. Discriminant validity
Personality Assessment
Every time you hear about or go through a
personality assessment, you should wonder
about measurement:
• How were the variables measured?
• Are there potential disadvantages to the
measurement technique?
• Was the measure (eg, questionnaire) reliable
and valid?
Goals
1. Understand the roles of personality assessment
2. Understand the main ways of assessing personality that
have been proposed/developed, with strengths and
weaknesses
3. Understand unique challenges to personality assessment
4. Understand how to evaluate the quality of a personality
assessment
5. Insight into two or three of the most popular personality
“tests” – strengths/weaknesses
Some well-known (if not particularly useful
or valid) personality assessment tools
Rorshach
MBTI – Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (e.g., used
by WFU career services)
NEO-PI-R – NEO- Personality Inventory
HEXACO
MMPI – Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inv