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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What do personality tests measure?
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personality traits
motivation personal adjustment psychiatric symptomotology social skills attitudes |
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What are the two fundamental components of personality assessment?
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Each person is consistent to some extent.
We have coherent traits that arise repeatedly Each person is distinctive to some extent. Behavioral differences exist between individuals |
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What type of validity is most important for measures of personality?
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construct validity.
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What are the main techniques for assessing personality?
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Casual observation
Clinical observation Structured Interview Unstructured Interview Rating scales Checklists Self-Report Inventories Projective techniques |
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What are the major tenants of Psychoanalytic Theory?
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-Based on work of Sigmund Freud
-Emphasizes the role of the unconscious -Personality is a function of the development and manifestation of the three aspects of personality Id Ego Superego -Defense Mechanisms -Vaillant’s hierarchy of ego adaptive mechanisms -Rate presence of various defense mechanisms -Get a “level” of mature/immature functioning -Projective techniques - designed to get at the “unconscious” are the instruments of choice for these theorists |
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What are the major tenants of Type Theories?
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-Sort individuals into distinct types or categories
-Many personality inventories are designed to identify types -Type theories may reflect correlations but often provide type descriptions that are too general to be useful -Must avoid pigeonholing people – no one fits any type perfectly |
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What is Type A?
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Type A – Coronary-Prone Behavior Pattern
Freidman & Rosenmen (1974) – studying risk for heart disease Trying to achieve more & more in less & less time Competitive, hostile, angry, time urgency, etc. |
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What is Type B?
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Type B
Easy going, noncompetitive, relaxed lifestyle |
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What are the major tenants of Phenomenological Theories?
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Emphasize the importance of self
Stress personal experience, individual perceptions, individual meaning and feelings attached to experiences These theorists see people as responding to the world in terms of their unique perceptions of it Favor unstructured interviews to make assessments Carl Rogers – self theory What is your self-concept? How do we see ourselves? |
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What is the Q-sort? What theory is it based on? How does it work?
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Q-Sort or Q-Technique
Stack of cards with statements about self Sort into 9 piles with rules for how many can go in each pile (most like me, least like me) |
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What are the major tenants of Behavioral & Social Learning Theories?
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View behavior as learned and as situation-specific
Experience and the environment are considered the main determinants of behavior You behave the way you learned to behavior in a given situation |
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What are behaviorists?
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Behaviorists: seek to identify the aspects of environment that are controlling behavior
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What are social learning theorists?
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Social Learning Theorists: allow for role of cognition (thoughts) in influencing behavior
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What is Rotter's theory?
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-perform behaviors that will result in desired outcome
-Internal-External Scale: measures locus of control -Identify source of things that happen to them |
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What are the major tenants of Trait Theories? What tests were designed based on different trait theories?
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Define personality with regard to traits or characteristics used to describe others in every day life
These theories suggest that people have a set of traits that cause them to be similar across situations Trait: relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another Cattell: surface & source traits Eysenck: Trait Dimensional Theory |
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What is the five factor model?
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A dimensional representation of personality structure based on broad factors of personality
In order to qualify as broad factors of personality, the factors must generalize across respondents, situations, personality inventories, procedures of evaluation, sexes, ages and cultures A dimensional approach is thought to be less arbitrary and more informative than the categorical model currently used to make diagnoses of personality disorders (symptom lists in DSM) |
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What are the five factors?
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OCEAN
Neuroticism (emotional/nervous v. unemotional/calm) Extraversion (sociable/person-oriented v. reserved/task-oriented) Openness (to experience) (curious/untraditional v. conventional/narrow interests) Agreeableness (soft-hearted/helpful v. suspicious/ruthless) Conscientiousness (organized/ambitious v. aimless/unreliable) |
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What is the evidence for the existence of these five factors?
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5-factor model is considered useful for describing both normal personality and personality-related disorders
Each of the five factors shows some evidence of heritability Most research on Neuroticism and Extraversion shows they are substantially determined by genetic influences NEO-PI – Test developed specifically to assess these five factors |
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What are problems with trait theories?
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Traits have low predictive validity
“while trait theory predicts behavioral consistency, it is behavioral inconsistency that is typically observe” |
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What are nomothetic approaches to personality assessment?
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Nomothetic approach – look for general laws of behavior and personality
-Older approaches to personality -General/universal descriptions -Found to be inadequate |
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What are the idiographic approaches to personality assessment?
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Idiographic approaches – treat each individual as a unique integrated system deserving of study in their own right
-Newer approaches to personality -Descriptions capture the complexity of human behavior |
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What are the differences between projective & objective tests?
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Projective Tests:use response to ambiguous stimuli to infer something about personality
Objective Test:Inventories, lists of questions, objectively scored |
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What is a theory-guided instrument?
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Rely on one specific theory for development
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What are examples of a theory-guided instrument?
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Myers Briggs Type Indicator
(Based on Jungian Theory) Jenkins Activity Survey (Based on Theory of Type “A” behavior) |
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What is a factor-analytically derived inventory?
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Measure personality traits that have been identified as clusters of items through factor analysis
Example 16 PF -Started with hundreds of traits terms and through factor analysis found items that clustered. -Developed an inventory based on the most salient traits and clusters |
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What is a criterion-keyed instrument?
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-Try out many test items and select only those items capable of discriminating between well-defined criterion groups:
Example (True/False item) I often feel that people don’t like me If we find that 84% of paranoids and only 13% of normal controls endorse the item there is sufficient discrimination to assign the item to a scale for paranoia and key it in the true direction -Criterion-keyed instruments do not reflect just a single theory but instead look at the data to determine which items are most effective at making the discriminations -Of the three types of self-report measures we typically see the highest validity coefficients with criterion-keyed inventories -Examples MMPI-2 CPI |
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What do we know about the usefulness of personality measures as a whole?
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Reliability and validity can be problematic
Response sets such as Social Desirability and Acquiescence are a problem The major problem then is truthfulness in responding For this reason, it is not uncommon to see validity scales to detect lying and response distortion on personality tests |
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What is the bottom line on personality assessment?
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Never rely on the results of just one instrument
Two people might interpret the same test profile differently Findings should be supported by interviews, observations and if possible, multiple measures |
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What is the MBTI?
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Authored by a mother and daughter team – Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs
Originally developed in 1943 Picked up by ETS in 1950 but dropped after several years of conducting psychometric tests In 1975 Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP) published and marketed the MBTI. |
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What is the theory behind the MBTI?
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Based on Carl Jung’s (1923) personality typology
Suggests children are born with predispositions to develop and exhibit definite preferences in what we perceive or become aware of in how we judge or arrive at conclusions about people events, situations and ideas Differences result in differences in interests, values, needs and motivation reflecting different personalities. |
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What are the 4 Bipolar Dimensions in the MBTI?
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Introversion v. Extraversion
Sensation v. Intuition Thinking v. Feeling Judging v. Perception |
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What is the forer effect?
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The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people.
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What is the validity for the MBTI?
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Overall validity is poor except for the I/E dimension which has concurrent validities ~.75
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What is the test-retest for MBTI?
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Test-retest is reported between .56-.90; however one study showed as many as half of all test takers changed “type” over a five week period.
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What is the MMPI-2?
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Self-report personality test used as aid in diagnosis of psychopathology
Adult version (18 yrs. +) - 567 items Adolescent version (14-18 yrs.) – 478 items |
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When was the original test for the MMPI made?
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Original test was published in 1943 by Starke Hathaway, Ph.D. and J. Charnley McKinley, M.D. (U. of Minn. Hospital)
Developed to be used: -As a routine diagnostic assessment to assign psycho-diagnostic labels -To assess psychological factors associated with physical problems as a means of estimating effects of psychotherapy |
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Name all 4 Validity Scales in the MMPI?
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? Cannot say scale – # questions left blank
L Lie Scale – Overly favorable self-presentation F Frequency Scale – 10% of normals endorse K Correction scale – Defensiveness in admitting to problems |
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What is the reliability for the MMPI?
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Split-half - .70s;
Test-retest .50 to low .90s (median .80s) |
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What is the validity for the MMPI?
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Considered useful for screening and as part of a battery to diagnose psychiatric and adjustment disorders. Also useful for employment screening and as a court room tool e.g. Child custody, Workman’s Compensation, Personal Injury, etc.
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