Chapter 12: Personality Assessment - An Overview
What is personality?
•Unique constellation of psychological states and traits (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2010)
Trait v. State
•Trait
–relatively enduring
•State
–interaction
Goals of Personality Tests
•Why assess personality traits?
–Self-perception
–Strengths and weaknesses
–Interests
Culturally-Relevant Issues
•Values system
•Acculturation v. Identity
•Relation to group
–Individualistic v. Collectivistic
•Translation issues
Four Major Approaches to Personality Test Construction
•Logical Approach
–Content-related validation
–Insight into content
–Direct questioning
Examples
•Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (1919)
–WWI
–Items measuring presence of symptoms
•Mooney Problem Checklist (1950)
–Students
–Emotional functioning
•Symptom Checklist 90-R (Derogatis, 1994)
–Adolescents and adults
Limitations
•Face validity
•Self-report
•Statistical analyses
Theoretical Approach
•Based on theory
•Intended to assess personality type
Examples
•Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (1943, 1960)
–Jungian typology - preferences
–I-E (sensing-intuitive) T-F thinking (judging perceptive)
•Edwards Personality Preference Scale (Edwards, 1953)
–Murray's (1938) theory of relative needs
–Ipsative scale
Ipsative Samples
•Which of the two items best describes your interests?
– I like to arrange flowers
– I like to solve computer software problems
Examples (cont)
•Self-Directed Search (Holland et al., 1994)
–Vocational personality
Limitations
•Ipsative scales are relative
•Interpretations appear arbitrary
Data Reduction
•Factor analysis
•Identify observed dimensions of personality
Examples
•16 PF Personality Factors (Cattell)
•Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (1976)
•NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (Costa & McRae, 1992)
– “The Big Five”
Limitations
•Subjective identification of factors
•Emphasis on grouping of variables
•Focus of common variance
Criterion Groups
•Use of reference groups
•Compare criterion (trait) and control groups (non-trait)
Empirical Criterion Keying
•Scoring key
•Divergent validity
•Items
Examples
•Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2 MMPI - 2 (1989)
•California Personality Inventory CPI (Gough, 1987)
Personality Assessment Techniques
•Objective vs. Projective
Objective Methods
•Self-report short-answer items
•Structured scoring system
•Emphasize reliability and validity
Examples
•MMPI-A (Adolescent) Butcher et al, 1992
–Assessing psychopathology
–Teenagers
•State Trait Anxiety Inventory STAI (Spielberger, 1985)
–State Anxiety
–Trait Anxiety
•Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Hathaway & McKinley (1940)
•Originally intended for differential diagnosis
•Tentative hypothesis of psychopathology
MMPI-2
•1989 major restandardization
•567 items - True, False, Cannot Say responses - no repeated items
•14% of items changed, 107 new items
Scales
•Multidimensional since scales overlap
•Six validity scales
•Ten Clinical Scales
•Supplementary Scales
T scores
•Uniform T-scores: M = 50, SD = 10
–Higher T-score indicates
•Score of 65 (70 - 2 standard deviations) is statistically significant
–Profile is interpreted as a whole
Psychometric Properties
•Reliability
•Validity
– Convergence
– Discriminant
Limitations
•Self-report
•Impression management
•Response style
–Social desirability: seen in a favorable light
•Faking good
•Faking bad
–Malingering