1. Assessment of Personality
CPS 616
Instructor: Emily E. Bullock, Ph.D.

2. Measuring Personality
History of Personality Measurement
Is it traits or situations (states)?
Are you assessing personality to promote healthy development or diagnose pathology?
Taxonomies

3. Defining Personality
Merriam-Webster online: the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or group; especially : the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics b : a set of distinctive traits and characteristics
Text Definition pg 43: “…set of characteristics of a person or of people that account for consistent patterns of response to situations.”

4. Measuring Personality
Objective vs Projective
The Interview, Their Portfolio, Case history Data, Behavioral observation, Informants
How do we know we are measuring the personality trait we are interested in?
Characteristics of a Good Personality Measure
Interpretability
Stability

5. Objective Testing The Theory of the Big Five Personality Factors
The NEO-PI-R
Other Objective Measures

6. The Theory of the “Big Five”
Known as the Five Factor Model or the Big Five Theory
Tupes and Christal (1961) first identified five recurrent, strong personality factors through an analysis of 35 researched personality factors
Various names for the 5 factors have emerged
Most commonly used names were coined by Costa & McCrae (1980). They refer to the five factors as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience.
OCEAN

7. The Big 5: Neuroticism (N)
Represents the contrast between adjustment or emotional stability and maladjustment or neuroticism.
High Scorers- prone to have irrational ideas, less able to control impulses, and poor when coping with stress.
Low Scorers- typically calm, relaxed, and able to face stressful situations without becoming upset

8. The Big 5: Extraversion (E)
Measures the extrovert/introversion tendency in people
High Scorers- the prototypical assertive, active, and talkative salesperson
Low Scorers- are those that lack extraversion in their personalities

9. The Big 5: Openness to Experience (O)
Includes such elements as active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety, intellectual curiosity, and independence of judgment.
High scorers- lead experientially richer lives, entertain unconventional ideas, and experience emotions stronger than do “closed” individuals
Low scorers- have a narrower scope and less intense interests

10. The Big 5: Agreeableness (A)
Associated with interpersonal tendencies
High scorers- altruistic, sympathetic, and eager to help.
Low scorers- antagonistic, egocentric, skeptical of others, and competitive

11. The Big 5: Conscientiousness (C)
Attempts to assess one’s tendency toward planning, organizing, and carrying out tasks. Associated with the common descriptor, character.
High scorers- indicative of a person that is scrupulous, punctual, and reliable.
Low scorers- typical of those that are not as reliable in how they apply their moral standards and are less exact in goal seeking

12. Criticisms of the Five Factor Model
Criticized for having too few AND too many factors
Only represents how we see ourselves, not how others see us
Represents our projection of cognitive biases
Failure to provide compelling casual explanations for human behavior and experience
Disregard of the contextual and conditional nature of human experience
Failure to offer an attractive program for studying personality organization and integration
Reliance on simple, noncontingent, and implicitly comparative statements about persons.

13. The NEO-PI-R
Costa and McCrae (1992) noted that “by describing the individual’s standing on each of the five factors, we can provide a comprehensive sketch that summarizes his or her emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal, and motivational styles”

14. NEO-PI-R
Designed to “measure five major dimensions or domains of normal adult personality”
For ages 17 and over with norms for 10 and up under development (NEO-PI-3)
Latest version released in 1992 (1st version 1985)
240 items on the NEO-PI-R
Takes minutes to complete
Norms based on 1,000 people and stratified based on the 1995 US Census

15. NEO-PI-R
Reliability
Internal consistency estimates range from in self-reports and in observer ratings.
Test-retest reliability for the facet scales range from

16. NEO-PI-R
Construct validity has been demonstrated between many of the NEO-PI-R scales and a variety of external criteria such as
psychological well-being
coping and defenses
needs and motivation
Jungian types
interpersonal traits
creativity and divergent thinking
vocational interests

17. Uses of the NEO-PI-R Basic research
Assessing Employee variables (i.e., Consciousness scale)
Vocational Counseling
General developmental counseling
Within a battery used to assess psychopathology

18. Interpretation of NEO scores
Refer to your IPIP-NEO report

20. NEO-PI-R Weakness: Strengths: Lack of sophisticated validity scales
Reviewers identify some item construction and reading-level inconsistencies
Strengths:
Based on over 50 years of reputable research
Ratings are given in likert-type language rather than the extremes

21. Other NEO Measures NEO-PI-R observer version NEO-FFI NEO-4 NEO-PI-3
McCrae, R., Costa, P., & Martin, T. (2005). The NEO-PI-3: A More Readable Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84(3),

22. Other Objective Personality Tests
16PF Adolescent Personality Questionnaire
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescents (MMPI-A)
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III)

23. Projective Testing
Rationale: Ambiguous stimuli will elicit projections of one’s personality
Common Characteristics
Relatively unstructured task
Brief, general instructions that often can not be repeated
Ambiguous stimuli
Low Face Validity
Results consist of a composite picture of personality
Thought to reveal unconscious aspects

24. The Rorschach
Projective test with the overall goal to assess the structure of personality
Consists of 10 symmetrical inkblots on cards
Administration time: minutes
Provides information on variables such as motivation, response tendencies, cognitive operations, affectivity, and personal and interpersonal perceptions
Age 5 and up (Exner 5-69)

25. Rorschach Inkblot Test
Not an actual card

26. Not an actual card

27. Rorschach Administration
Introduce respondent to technique
Giving the Test Instructions
“What might this be?”; “People see all sorts of things in the inkblots.”
Response Phase
Get at least 15 responses for Exner system
Allow test-taker to free associate for each card
Inquiry
Test User attempts to see what the test taker saw in the inkblots

28. Rorschach Selected Assets and Limitations
Bypasses a person’s conscious resistance and assesses a person's underlying unconscious structure of personality
Limitations
Variable reliability and validity estimates
Time required for scoring and interpretation
Extensive time required for training

29. Other Projective Techniques
Sentence completion tasks
Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Blank
House-Tree-Person
Roberts Apperception Test for Children
Kinetic Family Drawing Test

31. Other types of measurement
Depression
Anxiety
Alcohol use
ADHD
Coping
Hopelessness
Differences between assessment of children and teens