Assessment Exam 3 (2023)
Two categories of personality assessments: - ANS-Structured and unstructured
Structured personality assessments - ANS-- also
... [Show More] called objective assessments
- standardized, self-report, often forced-choice
Unstructured personality assessments - ANS-- also called projective assessments
- responses to these tasks are expected to reflect needs, experiences, inner states, and
thought processes
projective hypothesis - ANS-- responses to ambiguous stimuli reflect a person's basic
personality
- the reasoning behind projective tests
Structured assessments are typically used to...... whereas unstructured assessments
are typically used to..... - ANS-- structured assessments are typically used to test
hypotheses and examine psychopathology and behavioral problems
- unstructured assessments are typically used to generate hypotheses and examine
intrapsychic dynamics
4 methods used to construct objective personality inventories - ANS-(1) logical content
method
(2) theoretical method
(3) criterion group method
(4) factor-analytic method
Which two of the methods used to construct objective personality inventories are
empirical? - ANS-Criterion group method and factor-analytic method
Logical content method: - ANS-- used to construct structured personality inventories
- test developer identifies statements that seem to be related to the content of the
characteristic being assessed
- ex: content scales of the MMPI2
- limitation: assumption that individuals are capable of evaluating their own
characteristics and that their answers can be taken at face value
theoretical method: - ANS-- used to construct structured personality inventories
- After the items have been grouped into scales, a construct validity approach is taken
to determine whether the inventory results are consistent with the theory
- ex: Jackson's Personality Research Form (PRF), based on Murray's theory of needs
- ex: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Jung's theory of personality types
Criterion group method: - ANS-- empirical method used to construct structured
personality inventories
- step 1: form a sample with known characteristics (like schizophrenia)
- step 2: administer an item pool to sample and to control group
- step 3: find items that distinguish the two groups and place them on a scale
- step 4: cross-validate the scale with another sample of the target population
- This method can also be used with groups that present contrasts on a particular trait
(ex- what distinguishes people classified as the most social and the least social)
- ex: MMPI2 clinical scales, most scales on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
Factor-analytic method - ANS-- empirical method used to construct structured
personality inventories
- a computer-based statistical procedure examines the intercorrelations between all of
the items on the inventory and groups the items into factors
- ex: Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF)
- factor-analytic techniques used to construct the Big Five personality traits
the Big Five personality traits - ANS-- Premise: Personality can be efficiently described
with five relatively independent trait dimensions
- developed using factor-analytic techniques
(a) Neuroticism—insecure versus self-confident
(b) Extraversion—outgoing versus shy
(c) Openness—imaginative versus concrete
(d) Agreeableness—empathic versus hostile
(e) Conscientiousness—well organized versus impulsive
- NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) was developed specifically to assess
the Big Five factors
- 4 dimensions of the MTBI related to all but neuroticism
- MMPI2 has several items measuring neuroticism but less focus on the other 4
- general agreement: these 5 factors exist
- disagreement: the real number of personality dimensions
- disagreement: some of the labels, characteristics, and behaviors associated with the
dimensions
Potential shortcoming to self-report personality measures - ANS-they can typically be
distorted in a negative direction if individuals are motivated to present a poor image or in
a positive direction for social desirability
several inventories contain validity or social desirability scales to detect such distortion
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventories - ANS-- Empirically created
- First developed is the MMPI2, then the Restructured Form, then an Adolescent Form
and then the Adolescent Restructured Form
- purpose is evaluating mental disorders and informing treatment plans
- contains both clinical scales and validity scales (to test for the test-taker's attitude
toward the testing process)
- "the Minnesota normals" are the reference groups compared to the clinical populations
-- a normative sample selected to represent age, race, gender, etc. distribution of the
US population
- The scales are listed on a different notecard, and they should be viewed together, not
in isolation
--most scales are also divided into subscales for better clarification
- Aren't accurate for diagnosis, merely provide a summary of behavioral characteristics
- T score of 65 separates normal from clinical samples, and it is standardized to make
up the 92nd percentile for each scale
- some critical items like 2 for suicidality (there's a Koss-Butcher critical item set)
CONTINUES... [Show Less]