PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Week 12-13 FEM4105 Psychology of Personality & Human Dynamics BS(PM)-PJJ PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Week 12-13 INSTRUCTOR: SITI NOR BINTI YAACOB, PhD. sitinor@upm.edu.my/012-2841844

What is Personality Assessment? Personality measurement Use personality inventory(assessment tool) to determine Different theories of personality use different types of assessment techniques Types of tests/assessment techniques used depends on: Objectives Theoretical perspectives held (various theory) Examples of personality assessment techniques: Self-report inventories (psychometric) : Dispositional Projective techniques : Psychoanalytic Clinical/in-depth interviews (subjective): Person-centered/Attachment Behavioral assessment(objective) : Behaviorism/Social Learning

3 Levels of Measurement 1. Instrument: A large personality inventory consisting of many scales or tests (e.g., the full Big 5 Inventory, California Personality Test) 2. Test/Scale: Several items that measure one personality dimension (e.g., a trait scale on the Big 5, such as extraversion) 3. Measure/Item: A single item (or behavior) that assesses only one personality trait or dimension (e.g., one item of the Big 5)

How Do Personality Psychologists Study Behavior? Descriptive Methods -Involves measuring and recording behaviors, thoughts, or feelings in natural state -Useful in estimating correlations Naturalistic Observations That is observing behavior as it occurs in the real-life settings. Case Studies Is in intensive examinations of a single person or group. Archives Assessing or looking into public records of social behaviors. Survey Methods By asking people questions about their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. Questionnaires are normally utilized to collect information from respondents. Psychological Tests That is a standardized procedure for sampling behavior and describing it with categories or scores.

How Do Personality Psychologists Study Behavior? Experimental Methods -People are randomly assigned to different, experimentally manipulated conditions -Involves attempts to manipulate social processes by varying aspect of situation. -Independent Variable is manipulated while Dependent Variable is measured. Laboratory based It is a direct manipulation of independent variables and the observation are made on its effects on the dependent variables. Field based It is a manipulation of independent variables using “unknowing” participants in natural (field) settings.

Personality Assessment: Classification Schemes Disguised Non-Disguised Unstructu-red 1) Projective test (broad theme) -Respond freely -True purposes are concealed -Example: -Thematic Apperception Test(TAT) 2) Subjective test -True purposes are not concealed -Clinical Interview Structured 3) Empirically-constructed psychometric test -Force to respond to a limited number of items in a standard test -Examples: -Self-report Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) - Jackson PersonalityResearchForm 4) Rationally-constructed psychometric test -Accept as useful but not self-biased -16PF -Big Five 5) Structured/ Behavioral Tests Objective-behavioral in nature Force to respond(behave) in a limited number of ways in controlled situations(lab) Example: The Behavioral Avoidance Test

Projective Technique Are unstructured, disguised, and geared to assess broad themes in personality structure and functioning. Designed to assess convert, unconscious forces that might guide behavior. Generate rich and varied responses (e.g. latent thoughts, aspirations, fears, and deep feelings). Individuals impose (project) their own wishes, fantasies, goals, hopes, and fears on to the stimuli. Stimuli are free of structure and cultural themes. Example: The Rorschach Inkblots and Thematic Apperception Test

Projective Technique The Rorschach Inkblots: In diagnosing a particular certain personality disorder, the content of responses given by the client (respondents) is very important. Examples: Two animals fighting may disclose fundamental personal conflicts. Explosions may indicate aggression and hostility. Pigs symbolize greedy tendencies. Foxes symbolize devious tendencies. Spiders, witches, and octopi symbolize dominating mothers. Gorillas and giants symbolize dominating fathers. Ostriches symbolize hiding from conflict.

Projective Technique The Rorschach Inkblots: All figures, such as hostile animals, nurturing animals, and authority figures have certain symbols in the scoring.

Projective Technique The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): The most widely utilized projective test to assess person needs and motive. It consists a series of pictures that illustrate individuals facing important life situations. The scenes in the pictures are normally very ambiguous and leave much room for interpretation and projection. Based on the picture showed, respondents were requested to describe or tell stories about each life scene. The stories explain what is going on, the thoughts and feelings of people in the scene, what led up to the scene, and what the likely outcome will be. The purpose of this test is also to tab and disclose individual underlying needs and motives. This is because, when interpreting ambiguous situations, individuals will expose (project) their own goals, needs, worries, & concerns onto the story characters People are not aware they are talking about themselves and, thus, defenses are by-passed.

Projective Technique The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT):

Projective Technique Why do some clinicians continue to use Rorschach? It was designed to measure idiosyncratic, unusual responses, which tend to be unstable and erratic. Compared to other projective methods, Rorschach can explore at a unique and deeper levels of analysis into the human personality than other tests. Rorschach is sometimes used as a supplementary or additional information from other, more valid tests.

Psychometric Technique Structured, i.e. limited response options, and can either be disguised or non-disguised. Appraise more conscious and comprehensible aspects of personality functioning. Ensure a higher reliability and validity on the results obtained. They normally entail self-report statements that inquire about specific preferences or behavior. Response options are usually limited to numerical scales (e.g. 1- 7 scales). Individuals select answers that are most descriptive of or true of them. Example: Jackson’s Personality Research Form The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Psychometric Technique Jackson’s Personality Research Form: Developed to measure Murray’s (1983) major needs and motives in normal people. It consists of 440 true/false items that assess 22 trait scales or dimensions, such as Anxiety, Energy level, Conformity, Risk-taking, Need for achievement, Need for power, Need for intimacy.

Psychometric Technique The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): Used as a screening tools for psychiatric patients. It consists of a large pool of randomly chosen self-report items. Respondents (patients) were requested to respond to the statements given – in a “true/false/cannot say” format. Able to identify criterion groups, e.g. normal people versus psychopaths, schizophrenics, depressives, hypochondriacs, etc. Example: Likert scale Respondents were asked to response to a list of answers that befits them. Respondents must specify their level of agreement to a given statement when responding to a Likert questionnaire item.

Psychometric Technique EXAMPLE OF LIKERT SCALES To measure a person Agreement on a particular issue Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree To measure Frequency Often Sometimes Seldom Never To measure Importance Very important Important Moderately important Of little important Unimportant To measure Quality Very good Good Barely acceptable Poor Very poor To measure Likelihood Very likely Likely Unlikely Very unlikely Psychometric Technique

Psychometric Technique PSYCHOMETRIC SCALES EXAMPLE OF Personal Self-esteem rating scale Personal Behavior Inventory The ‘Why-worry’ Scale Interpersonal The friendliness scale Fear of intimacy scale Adult-self expression scale Self Development The self-efficacy scale Hardiness scale Empathy scale Psychometric Technique

Examples of questionnaire used to test self-concept Coopersmith’s Self-Esteem Inventory (1989) Michigan State Self-Concept of Ability Scale (Brookover et al., 1965) Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965)