 Paper-and-pencil
personality tests
 Computer-administered personality tests
 Objective test of personality (multiple
choice, rating)?
 Items in this format can be answered,
scored, analyzed, and interpreted
quickly.
 What
is objective?
 Problems of self-report data
 Reactions against objective tests:
• Moving away from norms, more personalized
• Fix faking: Project structures on unstructured
objects so that hidden, unconscious thoughts can
be uncovered (assume that the subjects do not
know how you would interpret the results and so
they cannot fake their responses)
 Rorschach
test
 Unveil hidden thought process
 Moving away from norm-referenced
(objective) tests, but over the years
psychologists developed “norms” and
standards to interpret the results
 Psychometric soundness is an issue
 Some consider this a structured
interview, not a “test”
 In
the following exercise please try to
give your honest response (What pops up
in your mind immediately). Don’t worry
about whether it is socially acceptable or
not. There will be no ethical or legal
consequences. The instructor has put this
in writing.
 Inkblots as Projective Stimuli
• The Rorschach
• Pictures as Projective Stimuli
 The Thematic Apperception Test: Some components
may predict important outcomes in spite of low
reliability
 Other tests using pictures as projective stimuli
• Words as projective stimuli
 Word association tests
 Sentence completion tests
 The
Production of Figure Drawings
• Very often for children who have limited verbal
skills.
• Figure-drawing tests: Multi-dimensional?
Affected by drawing skills
 Projective
Methods in Perspective
• Assumptions: Projective hypothesis
• Situational variables
• Psychometric considerations

Mary is 35-year old. She is attractive
and has a doctorate in nuclear
physics from MIT. Her career is
considered very successful because
by the age of 30 she became a full
professor in UCLA. But she has
problems in relationship. She tried
e-harmony.com and were
approached by several men. But
none of them continued dating with
her after three meetings. How can
you help her? What personality
assessment approach will you use?
 Next
time when she has a date, you can
go with her and observe how she
interacts with the man from a distance
(use a camera with a telephoto lens)
 Approaches
•
•
•
•
•
to Behavioral Assessment
Behavioral observation and rating scales
Situational performance measures
Role play
Psychophysiological methods
Unobtrusive measures e.g. Website traffic log
 Advantages:
• provide behavioral baseline data.
• provide behavioral strengths and weaknesses
across a variety of situations and environmental
conditions.
 Tell
 You
a story by looking at a picture.
may expose your conscious or unconscious
ideas through your language usage.
 http://www.utpsyc.org/TATintro/
 The
woman in the picture is a female
scientist. She is brilliant, but she is under
the supervision of a male scientist. The
man is not as good as the woman, but he
is the boss. He will take the findings as
his own and claim the credit. It is unfair.
Can you a story based on this picture?