PERSONALITY TESTING Definition of Personality refers to factors

PERSONALITY TESTING

Definition of Personality refers to “factors” inside people that explain their behavior (Mac. Kinnon, 1944). The sum total of typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes a person unique.

History of Personality • Ancient Greeks characterized human character by excessive influence of bodily fluids: blood, yellow & black bile, and phlegm. • Early psychological examinations looked at psychopathology. • By the 1930’s researchers started looking at the structure of everyday behaviour. Came up with universal traits.

The Trait Theory Many agree that five basic traits provide a complete description of our personalities. They are: Openness - refers to open-minded thinking and interest Conscientiousness - refers to how organized and persistent we are in pursuing our goals. Extroversion - refers to the preference for, & behavior in social situations Agreeableness - refers to how well we tend to interact with others Neuroticism - refers to the tendency to experience negative thoughts and feelings. Additions to the Big Five? – Honesty, Respect, Integrity, .

How Personality is Assessed Frank (1939) stated that “an initial difficulty in the study of personality is the lack of any clear cut conception of what is to be studied. - construct validity issues

What Are Projective Tests? A projective test uses ambiguous stimuli designed to reveal the contents of the client’s unconscious mind.

What Are Objective Tests? In an objective test, no attempt is made to subjectively understand what the person means by answer to each question.

What Make a Good Personality Measure Interpretability - Broad vs. Narrow (more reliable) Stability - Are tests valid? - Are they reliable? - Are they standardized?

How is Personality Different from Mood? Temporal stability – short vs. long term? Assumed etiology/cause – situation specific vs. person-centered? Assumed mutability – changeable or stable?

Objective Tests Examples 16 PF Myers Briggs Inventory (better to use the NEO-PI) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The MMPI-2 567 item, T/F inventory developed using an empirical approach Criterion group validation (T > 65) Low face validity (see Burisch criteria) Validity scales (e. g. , L, K, F, Fb, S, VRIN/TRIN) Primary clinical Restructured clinical Content/Content component Supplemental

Subjective Tests TAT Rorschach using Exner scoring system Location Determinant Content Popular