Personality Examination

The Interview ► Personality is measured by interviews, observation, questionnaires and projective tests. ► Interview- a face-to-face meeting held for a purpose of gaining information about an individuals personal history, psychological state and personality traits.

Types of Interviews ► Unstructured Interview - an interview in which conversation is informal and topics are taken up freely as they arise. ► Structured Interview - An interview that follows a prearranged plan. ► Its used to identify personality disturbances and the study the dynamics of personality. ► Diagnostic Interview - Interviews used to find out how a person is feeling and what complaints/symptoms they have.

Limitations ► Interviewers can be swayed by: ► Preconceptions ► The interviewers own personality or gender ► People lying in their interview. ► As well as the Halo Effect- tendency to generalize a favorable/unfavorable first impression to unrelated details of personality.

Direct Observation and Rating Scale ► Observing people in public places, such as a park, is known as “direct observation”, which is basically and extension of “people watching” ► For example, a psychologist may choose to observe a child at play and evaluate the child using a “rating scale”

Behavioral Assessment Situational Testing ► Behavioral assessment Records frequency of specific behaviors. Alternate to direct observation. ► Situational tests are test that simulate real life conditions so that a persons reaction can be observed.

Personality Questionnaires ► Objective alternative to interviews ► Good tests are reliable and valid  Reliable: same score if given multiple times  Valid: measures what it says it measures ► Examples of tests:  Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey  CA psychological Inventory  MMPI-2

MMPI-2 ► Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory ► Most widely used ► Charts 10 major aspects of personality ► Resulting graph is called MMPI-2 Profile

Inkblots ► Example of a Projective test  Projective tests uncover unconscious wishes through ambiguous stimuli  Known as the Rorshach Technique  The patient is shown inkblots and told to describe what he or she sees  There answers are used to identify conflicts and fantasies  Content is less important than how they organize images

Example

TAT Example

Thematic Apperception Test ► Or TAT developed by theorist Henry Murray ► Consists of 20 sketches depicting scenes ► Patients are asked to form a story around the scene a psychologist might count the number of emotional reactions that appear in a persons story ► The limits of the projective tests are ambiguous they are best used in Test Battery

TAT example 2

Sudden Murder Example ► Fred Cowan was a push over at work ► Shortly after being fired he went to his work and killed 4 coworkers and police officers before killing himself ► Study which was carried out found shy introverted and restrained personalities can become violent when they lose control