Personality Assessments Directions: While reading about Personality Tests Answer the following questions and hand them in at the end of class.
1. Why and in what situations are personality tests used?
2. What is the difference between a subjective and an objective personality
test?
3. To what extent are interview personality assessments
reliable?
4. What is the halo effect and how does it impact rating scale
outcomes?
4b. What is the most popular personality inventory called?
5. What is a projective type of personality test? List the different types.
6. Look at an example of a Rorschach test and record what you see.
7. Look at an example of a Thematic Apperception test and
record your results
Hand in your work! Have a good weekend.
Personality Assessment Personality is tested or measured in many situations. Industry and the military services, for example, often select persons on the basis of personality test results. Someone who seeks psychotherapy may be given personality tests to identify his problems. Personality assessment techniques are also used in mental hospitals and clinics to aid in diagnosis and to measure improvement after treatment. As you read the text, try to answer the following questions.
THE INTERVIEW An interviewer must be both objective and skilled The most commonly used method of personality assessment is the interview. If we want to know something about someone, we ask him. Interviews are subjective assessments but their degree of subjectivity can vary a great deal. In a standardized situation the interviewer asks questions that are prepared in advance. This is less subjective than a "non-directive" interview in which the subject says what he pleases and the interviewer comments on what the subject says. But even in two standardized situations with identical questions a subject may give different replies to two interviewers. He may regard one as friendly because of his tone of voice and the other as hostile because of the way he looks. Therefore, personality assessments based on interviews are not very reliable. Interviews can sometimes obtain reliable data of a statistical nature. Interviews may also be used to probe the deepest areas of an individual's personality, but in this case the training, skill, and sophistication of the interviewer must be of the highest order. Even then, problems of reliability may arise.
RATING SCALES Rating scales are particularly sensitive to a reviewer's overall impression A rating scale is a quantitative technique for making a judgment about some aspect of personality. For example, a nursery-school teacher may be asked to check along the following line to rate each child for cooperativeness
. |_______________|_________________|__________________|_________________|___________________|
Very Uncooperative Usually Uncoooperative Sometimes Cooperative Usually Cooperative Very Cooperative
In spite of their simplicity, there are a number of disadvantages to such scales. Most people have a tendency to rate a person consistently high because of a favorable general impression or consistently low because of a poor one. This "halo effect" is difficult to avoid. But, since they are easy to use and provide rough data readily, rating scales continue to play an important part in personality assessment.
PERSONALITY INVENTORIES The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the most widely used of all personality inventories, was developed by S. R. Hathaway and J. C. McKinley. It was devised to provide scores on a large number of aspects of personality both within and beyond the normal range. The MMPI consists of 556 statements to which a subject responds true if the statement applies to him and false if it does not. The test can reveal disturbances in such areas as hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, paranoia, and schizophrenia. In addition, there is a scale that indicates the carefulness with which the subject took the test. Another scale indicates whether the subject attempted to distort the result by answering falsely. Some examples of items on the MMPI are ``It is safer to trust nobody"; "I wish I were not bothered by thoughts about sex"; "I do not always tell the truth"; and "I am not afraid of mice."
Figure 1 shows additional typical items from this test. The answer in parentheses would support the diagnosis given above each item.
Figure 1. Typical items from the MMPI with scales indicated
Hypochondriasis Hs I am bothered by acid stomach several times a week. (True)
Depression (D) scale I am easily awakened by noise. true)
Hysteria (Hy) scale I like to read newspaper articles on crime. (False
Psychopathic deviate (Pd) scale I am neither gaining nor losing weight.(False)
Masculinity-feminity (Mfl scale When I take a new job, I like to be tipped off on who should be gotten next to. (False)
Paranoia (Pa) scale I have never been in trouble with the law.(False)
Psychasthenia (Pt) scale I am inclined to take things hard. (True)
Schizophrenia (Sc) scale I get all the sympathy I should. (False)
Hypomania (Ma) scale I never worry about my looks. (True)
Social introversion (Si) scale People generally demand more respect for their own rights than they are willing to allow for others. (True) (From Dahlstrom and Welsh, 1960)
Personality inventories provide comparative data The principal difference between a rating scale and a personality inventory is in the scoring. The scoring of the rating scale is based on the personal opinion of the rater. The scoring of the MMPI depends on extensive empirical research. If a teacher rates one child as very cooperative and another as uncooperative, her meaning is clear. But one cannot judge the meaning of a positive response to an item in an inventory until one determines what class of individuals respond positively to that item. A diagnosis is based on many items, and on patterns of responses, not on just one item.
PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES: There are several commonly used projective techniques that were derived from Freudian and Neo-Freudian Theories. These projective techniques are gaining more and more research support as they become more standardized and researched, but they are still open to a lot of different interpretations. Ideally, most psychologists see these tests as a way to gain information about an individual although they recommend they be used in conjunction with other assessment techniques
Projective techniques were developed to delve deeply into a subject's personality. In a projective test the subject is presented with an ambiguous stimulus. He is asked to tell what he sees in the stimulus, and he "projects" his personality info his answers. The psychologist then makes a subjective appraisal of the subject's responses. To an item in an inventory a subject may respond only yes, no, or cannot say The ways of responding to a projective item are virtually unlimited. The Rorschach test, named after the Swiss psychiatrist who designed it, is probably the best known of the projective techniques. It consists of a series of 10 cards, each of which contains an inkblot. Some are in black and white; others are in color. The instructions to the subject are brief. He is given a card and asked to report what he sees. Figure 2 shows an example of the type of figure used. Figure 2. An example of the type of inkblot figure used in the Rorschach Test. Blots similar to this one are shown to a subject with the instruction to indicate what he sees in them. After all the subject's responses are recorded, the examiner asks questions about them in an attempt to discover what it was about each card that determined the responses.
Rorschach Tests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test Projective tests elicit responses that have been found typical of certain personalities Scoring of projective tests is based on norms. A subject's response to a card as a "bat" will be interpreted differently depending on whether that response is made most often by hospitalized schizophrenics or whether it is a typical response for college students.
Another widely used projective technique is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) developed by Morgan and Murray (1935). This test consists of a series of pictures. The subject is asked to make up a story about each one. The test is based on the assumption that the themes of a subject's stories reflect his own needs, fantasies, and aspirations. A sample drawing is shown in Figure 3.
Click on here for image of http://www.utpsyc.org/TATintro/ An item similar to those used on the Thematic Apperception Test (TA T). The subject is shown a drawing and is instructed to tell a story about what it depicts. (After Murray 1943)
Free Association
This was one of Freud's favorite techniques and on the surface sounds quite simple to use. Freud would sit in his chair behind the patient so as not to allow any projection to occur. He would then allow the patient to talk, without interruption or guidance, for an extended period. Freud would take notes, analyze themes, and piece together aspects of the unconscious that peak out.
Others might provide a topic for this free association, such as 'mother' or 'anger' and then sit back to allow the patient to freely associate. Without pressures, anxiety, or fears, the aspects of the unconscious are more free to show themselves. Interrupting or guiding the patient would therefore strengthen the defenses and push the unconscious impulses back down.
Dream Analysis
Another favorite of Psychoanalytic therapists, dream interpretation allows the assessor to find themes and hidden meaning in the patients dreams. Freud believed that all dreams consist of manifest, or obvious content, and latent, or hidden content.
The manifest content of dreams are the story like details that we share with others. For example, dreaming of flying would include details of how it came about, who was there, where the person flew, how fast, how high, etc. The latent content consists of bits and pieces of the unconscious that seep out while we are asleep and our defense mechanisms are their weakest. The dream of flying may represent a deeper unconscious need for freedom, a fear becoming too grounded or stuck, or perhaps even an expression of one's sexual impulses. The interpretation afforded a specific dream can vary dramatically and most agree that using this technique in conjunction with other information is its only ethical use.
- What is a personality inventory?
- Are there objective ways to measure personality?
THE INTERVIEW An interviewer must be both objective and skilled The most commonly used method of personality assessment is the interview. If we want to know something about someone, we ask him. Interviews are subjective assessments but their degree of subjectivity can vary a great deal. In a standardized situation the interviewer asks questions that are prepared in advance. This is less subjective than a "non-directive" interview in which the subject says what he pleases and the interviewer comments on what the subject says. But even in two standardized situations with identical questions a subject may give different replies to two interviewers. He may regard one as friendly because of his tone of voice and the other as hostile because of the way he looks. Therefore, personality assessments based on interviews are not very reliable. Interviews can sometimes obtain reliable data of a statistical nature. Interviews may also be used to probe the deepest areas of an individual's personality, but in this case the training, skill, and sophistication of the interviewer must be of the highest order. Even then, problems of reliability may arise.
RATING SCALES Rating scales are particularly sensitive to a reviewer's overall impression A rating scale is a quantitative technique for making a judgment about some aspect of personality. For example, a nursery-school teacher may be asked to check along the following line to rate each child for cooperativeness
. |_______________|_________________|__________________|_________________|___________________|
Very Uncooperative Usually Uncoooperative Sometimes Cooperative Usually Cooperative Very Cooperative
In spite of their simplicity, there are a number of disadvantages to such scales. Most people have a tendency to rate a person consistently high because of a favorable general impression or consistently low because of a poor one. This "halo effect" is difficult to avoid. But, since they are easy to use and provide rough data readily, rating scales continue to play an important part in personality assessment.
PERSONALITY INVENTORIES The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the most widely used of all personality inventories, was developed by S. R. Hathaway and J. C. McKinley. It was devised to provide scores on a large number of aspects of personality both within and beyond the normal range. The MMPI consists of 556 statements to which a subject responds true if the statement applies to him and false if it does not. The test can reveal disturbances in such areas as hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, paranoia, and schizophrenia. In addition, there is a scale that indicates the carefulness with which the subject took the test. Another scale indicates whether the subject attempted to distort the result by answering falsely. Some examples of items on the MMPI are ``It is safer to trust nobody"; "I wish I were not bothered by thoughts about sex"; "I do not always tell the truth"; and "I am not afraid of mice."
Figure 1 shows additional typical items from this test. The answer in parentheses would support the diagnosis given above each item.
Figure 1. Typical items from the MMPI with scales indicated
Hypochondriasis Hs I am bothered by acid stomach several times a week. (True)
Depression (D) scale I am easily awakened by noise. true)
Hysteria (Hy) scale I like to read newspaper articles on crime. (False
Psychopathic deviate (Pd) scale I am neither gaining nor losing weight.(False)
Masculinity-feminity (Mfl scale When I take a new job, I like to be tipped off on who should be gotten next to. (False)
Paranoia (Pa) scale I have never been in trouble with the law.(False)
Psychasthenia (Pt) scale I am inclined to take things hard. (True)
Schizophrenia (Sc) scale I get all the sympathy I should. (False)
Hypomania (Ma) scale I never worry about my looks. (True)
Social introversion (Si) scale People generally demand more respect for their own rights than they are willing to allow for others. (True) (From Dahlstrom and Welsh, 1960)
Personality inventories provide comparative data The principal difference between a rating scale and a personality inventory is in the scoring. The scoring of the rating scale is based on the personal opinion of the rater. The scoring of the MMPI depends on extensive empirical research. If a teacher rates one child as very cooperative and another as uncooperative, her meaning is clear. But one cannot judge the meaning of a positive response to an item in an inventory until one determines what class of individuals respond positively to that item. A diagnosis is based on many items, and on patterns of responses, not on just one item.
PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES: There are several commonly used projective techniques that were derived from Freudian and Neo-Freudian Theories. These projective techniques are gaining more and more research support as they become more standardized and researched, but they are still open to a lot of different interpretations. Ideally, most psychologists see these tests as a way to gain information about an individual although they recommend they be used in conjunction with other assessment techniques
Projective techniques were developed to delve deeply into a subject's personality. In a projective test the subject is presented with an ambiguous stimulus. He is asked to tell what he sees in the stimulus, and he "projects" his personality info his answers. The psychologist then makes a subjective appraisal of the subject's responses. To an item in an inventory a subject may respond only yes, no, or cannot say The ways of responding to a projective item are virtually unlimited. The Rorschach test, named after the Swiss psychiatrist who designed it, is probably the best known of the projective techniques. It consists of a series of 10 cards, each of which contains an inkblot. Some are in black and white; others are in color. The instructions to the subject are brief. He is given a card and asked to report what he sees. Figure 2 shows an example of the type of figure used. Figure 2. An example of the type of inkblot figure used in the Rorschach Test. Blots similar to this one are shown to a subject with the instruction to indicate what he sees in them. After all the subject's responses are recorded, the examiner asks questions about them in an attempt to discover what it was about each card that determined the responses.
Rorschach Tests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test Projective tests elicit responses that have been found typical of certain personalities Scoring of projective tests is based on norms. A subject's response to a card as a "bat" will be interpreted differently depending on whether that response is made most often by hospitalized schizophrenics or whether it is a typical response for college students.
Another widely used projective technique is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) developed by Morgan and Murray (1935). This test consists of a series of pictures. The subject is asked to make up a story about each one. The test is based on the assumption that the themes of a subject's stories reflect his own needs, fantasies, and aspirations. A sample drawing is shown in Figure 3.
Click on here for image of http://www.utpsyc.org/TATintro/ An item similar to those used on the Thematic Apperception Test (TA T). The subject is shown a drawing and is instructed to tell a story about what it depicts. (After Murray 1943)
Free Association
This was one of Freud's favorite techniques and on the surface sounds quite simple to use. Freud would sit in his chair behind the patient so as not to allow any projection to occur. He would then allow the patient to talk, without interruption or guidance, for an extended period. Freud would take notes, analyze themes, and piece together aspects of the unconscious that peak out.
Others might provide a topic for this free association, such as 'mother' or 'anger' and then sit back to allow the patient to freely associate. Without pressures, anxiety, or fears, the aspects of the unconscious are more free to show themselves. Interrupting or guiding the patient would therefore strengthen the defenses and push the unconscious impulses back down.
Dream Analysis
Another favorite of Psychoanalytic therapists, dream interpretation allows the assessor to find themes and hidden meaning in the patients dreams. Freud believed that all dreams consist of manifest, or obvious content, and latent, or hidden content.
The manifest content of dreams are the story like details that we share with others. For example, dreaming of flying would include details of how it came about, who was there, where the person flew, how fast, how high, etc. The latent content consists of bits and pieces of the unconscious that seep out while we are asleep and our defense mechanisms are their weakest. The dream of flying may represent a deeper unconscious need for freedom, a fear becoming too grounded or stuck, or perhaps even an expression of one's sexual impulses. The interpretation afforded a specific dream can vary dramatically and most agree that using this technique in conjunction with other information is its only ethical use.
