Personality Inventory
Reliability and Validity
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reliability: does it yield consistent result?
validity: does it measure what it is supposed
to measure?
• Construct validity: the extent to which an
instrument measures some hypothetical construct
such as intelligence, extraversion, etc.
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Convergent validity
Divergent validity
Discriminant validity
• Predictive validity: the extent that a test predicts
future.
Self-Report Inventories
 Sixteen
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Personality Factors Questionnaire
multiple-choice test developed by Cattell and
his colleagues in the 1940's
factor analysis (based on the correlation
coefficient) in a quest to try to discover all the
fundamental dimensions of human personality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Personality_Fa
ctors
Self-Report Inventories
Revised NEO Personality Inventory
(NEO PI-R)
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measure of the Five Factor Model: OCEAN
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Openness
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Fantasy
Aesthetics
Feelings
Actions
Ideas
Values
• Conscientiousness
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Competence
Order
Dutifulness
Achievement Striving
Self-Discipline
Deliberation
• Extraversion
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1. Warmth
2. Gregariousness
3. Assertiveness
4. Activity
5. Excitement Seeking
6. Positive Emotion
• Agreeableness
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Trust
Straightforwardness
Altruism
Compliance
Modesty
Tendermindedness
• Neuroticism
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Anxiety
Hostility
Depression
Self-Consciousness
Impulsiveness
Vulnerability to Stress
Self-report Inventories
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California Psychological Inventory
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created in a similar manner to the MMPI
not concerned with maladjustment or clinical diagnosis, but
concerned itself with more "normal" aspects of personality
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-3
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intended to provide information on psychopathology,
modeled on four scales
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14 Personality Disorder Scales
10 Clinical Syndrome Scales
Correction Scales (which help detect inaccurate responding)
42 Grossman Personality Facet Scales
Original MMPI (1930s)
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Hathaway and McKinley empirical keying approach
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the clinical scales were derived by selecting items that were endorsed
by patients known to have been diagnosed with certain pathologies.
not based on any particular theory, and thus the initial test was not
aligned with the prevailing psychodynamic theories of that time.
capture aspects of human psychopathology that were recognizable and
meaningful despite changes in clinical theories.
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Minnesota “normals” (n= 724) versus appropriate criterion groups.
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Started with 1000 items and ended with 504.
Problems of MMPI-1
 Did
not discriminate the clinical groups
intended.
 High
correlation among scales.
MMPI-2
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Aims of MMPI-2
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Revise and modernize by deleting objectionable, nonworking, and obsolete items.
Expand the item pool to include additional items
addressing contemporary clinical problems and
applications (e.g. homosexual, introversion )
Maintain the basic clinical scales.
New representative, nationally based sample.
Collect extensive data for validation.
MMPI-2
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567 items, all true-or-false format, and usually
takes between 1 and 2 hours to complete.
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an infrequently used abbreviated form of the test
that consists of the MMPI-2's first 370 items.
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The shorter version has been mainly used in
circumstances that have not allowed the full
version to be completed (e.g., illness or time
pressure
MMPI-2
 Clinical
Scales
MMPI-2
 Clinical
Scales
MMPI-2
 Validity
Scales
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L scale: Lie, Client "faking good”
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F Scale: Infrequency, Client "faking bad"
• less than 10% of normals answered the items in
the way.
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K Scale: Defensiveness, Denial/Evasiveness
Scoring and Interpretation
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Like many standardized tests, scores on the various
scales of the MMPI-2 is not representative of how "well"
or "poorly" someone has done on the test.
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Rather, analysis looks at relative elevation of factors
compared to the various norm groups studied.
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Raw scores on the scales are transformed into a
standardized T-scores (Mean or Average equals 50,
Standard Deviation equals 10) making interpretation
easier for clinicians.
Projective Tests
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Draw-a-person
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Developed originally by Florence Goodenough in 1926
inferring children's cognitive developmental levels with little or no
influence of other factors e.g. language barriers, special needs.
Rorschach
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first created in 1921,came in to widespread use after 1960
5 black cards and 5 color cards
Subject shown card and asked what it looks like
Interpretation involves 3 sets of variables
• Location – where on the blot subjects saw what they saw
• Content – what subjects report seeing, and
• Determinants – what made subjects report what they say.
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form,
shading, and
color.
 The
first of the ten cards in the Rorschach
inkblot test. It has been reported that
popular responses include bat, badge and
coat of arms.