What is Personality? Personality – Unique psychological qualities of an individual that influence a variety of characteristic behavior patterns across different situations and over time

What Forces Shape Our Personalities? According to the psychodynamic, humanistic and cognitive theories, personality is a continuously changing process, shaped by our internal needs and cognitions and by external pressures from the social environment

Personality Assessments  Objective Tests  aka self-report measures  Projective Tests  no predetermined range of responses  ambiguous stimuli

Objective Tests - MMPI Most frequently used test Ten clinical scales Validity scales detect suspicious response patterns Major revision = MMPI-2

Objective Tests – NEO-PI Measures Five Factor Model of Personality – Openness – Conscientiousness – Extraversion – Agreeableness – Neuroticism

Objective Tests – Big 5 Questionnaire Designed to have validity across cultures

Objective Tests  Strengths  objective and precise  extensive comparative data  Weaknesses  deliberate deception  social desirability bias  response sets

Projective Tests - Rorschach Inkblots – assess response based on: – Location of part on card – Content of response – Determinants: what prompted the response?

Projective Tests - TAT Pictures of ambiguous scenes Subjects asked to generate stories about them Evaluate structure & content of stories

 Strengths  not transparent to respondents  sensitive to unconscious features of personality  Weaknesses  scientific evidence is unimpressive  susceptible to intentional deception  “techniques” rather than tests Projective Tests

Personality Testing on the Internet Self-report inventories are increasingly being administered over the Internet Advantages: – completed quickly – data unavailable from traditional test – deliver assessment services to rural clients Disadvantages: – security is an issue for some tests – verifying the identity of the respondent – equivalency to paper-and-pencil format