Hester Gwen Nodora 2PSY4

Chapter 12: Personality Assessment: An

Overview
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For laypeople, personality refers to components of

an individuals makeup that can elicit positive or
negative reactions from others.
Good personality: consistently elicit positive
reactions from others.
Bad personality or No personality: elicit bot-sogood reactions from others.

PERSONALITY AND PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

Defined personality as:

Most adequate conceptualization of a persons
behavior in all its details. (McClelland)
The individual as a whole, his height and weight
and love and hates and blood pressure and
reflexes; his smiles and hopes and bowed legs and
enlarged tonsils. It means all that anyone is and
that he is trying to become. (Menninger)
Byrne characterized the entire area of personality
psychology as psychologys garbage bin in that
any research which doesnt fit other existing
categories can be labeled personality.
Personality individuals unique constellation of
psychological traits that is relatively stable over time.

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
Personality Assessment measurement and
evaluation of psychological traits, states, values,
interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of
humor, cognitive and behavioral styles, and/or related
individual characteristics.
TRAITS, TYPES, AND STATES
Personality Traits:
Goldon Allport tended to view personality traits
as real physical entities that are bona fide mental
structures in each personality.
Trait: generalized and focalized neuropsychic
system (peculiar to the individual) with the
capacity to render many stimuli functionally
equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent
(equivalent) forms of adaptive and expressive
behavior. (Goldon Allport)
There are real structures inside people that
determine their behavior in lawful ways. (Robert
Holt)
Holt conceptualize these structures as changes in
brain chemistry that might occur as a result of
learning: Learning causes submicroscopic
structural changes in the brain, probably in the
organization of its biochemical substance. (Robert
Holt)
Personality Trait any distinguishable, relatively
enduring way in which one individual varies from
another. (Guilford; book)
The word distinguishable indicates that
behaviors labeled with different trait terms
are actually different from one another.
Characteristics possessed by an individual.
Context, or the situation in which the behavior is
displayed, is important in applying trait terms to
behaviors.

We would observe the context before drawing any

conclusions about the persons traits.
Ex. A person talking to a friend over lunch
is friendly. Whereas that same person
talking to the same friend in a wedding
ceremony is rude.
The trait term depends on both behavior itself and
on the context in which it appears.
A measure of behavior may be obtained using
varied tools of psychological assessment.
Allport addressed the issue of cross-situational
consistency of traits or lack of it.
Roberts and DelVecchio (2000) explored the
endurance of traits by means of a meta-analysis of
152 longitudinal studies. It concluded that trait
consistency increases in a steplike pattern until
one is 50-59 years old, at which time such
consistency peaks.
Cross-situational consistency in traits has pointed
lack of consistency to traits such as: (Mischel)
1. Honesty
4. Attitude toward
2. Punctuality
authority
3. Conformity
5. Extra/Introversion

Personality Types:
Personality Types constellation of traits that is
similar in pattern to one identified category of
personality within a taxonomy of personalities.
Descriptions of people.
Hippocrates classification of people into 4 types:
1. Melancholic Black bile
2. Phlegmatic Phlegm
3. Choleric Yellow bile
4. Sanguine Blood
A typology devised by Carl Jung became the basis
for the MBTI.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) an
assumption guiding the development of this test was
that people exhibit definite preferences in the way that
they perceive or become aware of and judge or arrive
at conclusions about people, events, situations, and
ideas.
Corresponding differences in their
reactions, in their interests, values, needs, and
motivations, in what they do best, and like to
do. (Myers)
John Holland argued that most people can be
categorized as one of the following six personality
types:
1. Artistic
4. Social
2. Enterprising
5. Realistic
3. Investigative
6. Conventional
Self-Directed Search Test self-administered, selfscored, and self-interpreted aid used to type people
according to this system to offer vocational guidance.
Another personality typology, have 2 categories:
(Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman)
1. Type A Personality competitiveness, haste,
restlessness, impatience, feelings of being
time-pressured, and strong needs for
achievement and dominance, stressed.
2. Type B Personality mellow or laid-back,
more relaxed.
Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) 52-item self-report
inventory used to type respondents as Type A or B
personalities. (Jenkins)

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI) personality typology that attracted most
attention is associated with scores on a test.
Data from the administration of these tests
are frequently discussed in terms of the
patterns of scores that emerge on the
subtests. Patterns are referred to as profile.
Profile narrative description, graph, table, or other
representation of the extent to which a person has
demonstrated certain targeted characteristics as a
result of the administration or application of tools of
assessment.
Creation of such a description.
Profile Analysis interpretation of
patterns of scores on a test or test battery.
Profiler occupation: one who creates
personality profiles.
Personality Profile targeted characteristics are
traits, states, or types.
With specific reference to MMPI, different profiles of
scores are associated with different patterns of
behavior.
Personality States:
State transitory exhibition of some personality trait.
Indicative of a relatively temporary predisposition.
Charles D. Spielberg and his associates
developed a number of personality inventories to
distinguish states from traits.
State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) states that,
state anxiety refers to a transitory experience of
tension because of a particular situation. By contrast,
trait anxiety or anxiety proneness refers to a relatively
stable or enduring personality characteristic.
(Spielberg)
STAI test items consist of short descriptive
statements, and subjects are instructed to
indicate either:
1. How they feel right now (intensity of the
feeling)
2. How they generally feel (frequency of the
feeling)
The test-retest reliability coefficient: trait
anxiety (more enduring), state anxiety
(transitory).
PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT: SOME BASIC
QUESTIONS
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Personality assessment is a staple in

developmental research.
In the corporate world, personality assessment is a
key tool of the human resources department, relied
to aid in hiring, firing, promoting, transferring, and
related decisions.
Basic research involving personality assessment
helps to validate or invalidate theories of behavior
and to generate new responses.

WHO?
Some methods of personality assessment rely on
the assessees own self-report. Assessee may
respond to interview questions, answer
questionnaires, etc.
Other methods rely on informants. (Ex. Parents or
teachers).
The Self as the Primary Referent:

People typically undergo personality assessment so

that they, as well as the assessor, can learn
something about who they are.
Self-report information about assessees is supplied
by the assessees themselves. (Ex. Diaries, response to
oral or written questions or test items).
Self-report methods are used to explore an
assessees self-concept.
Self-concept ones attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and
related thoughts about oneself.
Self-concept Measure instrument designed to yield
information relevant to how an individual sees
him/herself with regard to selected psychological
variables.
Data are usually interpreted in the context of
how others may see themselves on the same
or similar variables.
Self-Concept Measure:
A. Beck Self-Concept Test (BST) respondents are
asked to compare themselves to other people on
variables such as looks, knowledge, and the ability
to tell jokes. (Aaron T. Beck)
B. Tennesee Self-Concept Scale (handout)
C. Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale has 80 selfstatements (I dont have any friends) to which
respondents from grades 3 to 12 respond either
yes or no as the statement applies to them.
Factor analysis suggested that the items cover
6 general areas of self-concept:
1. Behavior
2. Intellectual and School Status
3. Physical Appearance and Attributes
4. Anxiety
5. Popularity
6. Happiness and Satisfaction
D. Beck Youth Inventories Second Edition (BYIII) measures depression, anxiety, anger, and
disruptive behavior in children and adolescents aged 7
to 18 years. (Judith Beck; A. T. Becks daughter)
Self-Concept Differentiation degree to which a
person has different self-concepts in different roles.
(Donahue)
People characterized as highly differentiated:
perceive themselves quite differently in
various roles.
Ex. A highly differentiated business man in his
40s perceive himself as motivated and hardworking in his role at work, confirming and
people-pleasing in his role as son, and
passionate as husband.
People with low levels of self-concept
differentiation tend to be healthier
psychologically, perhaps because of their more
unified and coherent sense of self. (Donahue)
Some assessees may intentionally or
unintentionally paint distorted pictures of
themselves in self-report measures.
Faking good and the opposite, faking bad.
Another Person as the Referent:
Report by a third party such as a parent, teacher,
peer, etc.
The child may be unable or unwilling to complete
any measure that will be of value in making a valid
determination concerning the childs emotional
status. In such cases, the use of a test in which the

testtaker or respondent is an informant not the

subject of the study may be valuable.
Personality Inventory for Children (PIC/PIC-2)
standardized interview of a childs parent. Consists of
true-false items designed to be free of racial and
gender bias. Items may be administered by computer
or paper and pencil.
There are many cautions to consider when one
person undertakes to evaluate another.
Although a raters report can provide much
information about an assessee, it is instructive to
look at the source of that information.
Generalized biases to rate in a particular direction:
1. Leniency Error data are consistently overly
positive.
2. Severity Error rater is too strict or negative and
gives undeservedly low scores.
3. Error of Central Tendency general tendency to
rate everyone near the midpoint of a rating scale.
Ex. A teacher might favor one pupil because
that pupils older sister was teachers pet in
prior class.
4. Halo Effect variety of favorable response bias.
- Numerous other factors may contribute to bias in a
raters ratings:
a) Rater may feel competitive with, attracted to,
or repelled by the subject of the ratings.
b) Rater may not have the proper background,
experience, and trained eye needed for the
task, etc.
It is important to consider the context of the
evaluation. Different raters may have different
perspectives on the individual they are rating
because of the context in which they typically view
that person.
Multiaxial Empirically Based Assessment System
approach to the assessment of children and
adolescents that incorporates cognitive and physical
assessments of the subject, self-report of the subject,
and ratings by parents and teachers. (Achenbach;
Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment:
ASEBA)
The Cultural Background of Assessees:
Issues have been raised regarding the use of
personality tests and other tools of assessment
with members of culturally and linguistically
diverse populations.
WHAT?
What is assessed when a personality assessment is
conducted?
Answer this question with reference to the primary
content area sampled by the test and to that
portion of the test devoted to measuring aspects of
the testtakers general response style.
Primary Content Area Sampled:
Many contemporary personality tests, especially
tests that can be scored and interpreted by
computer, are designed to measure not only some
targeted trait or other personality variable but also
the testtakers response style.
Such additional scales could shed light on how the
testtakers responded to the test and how
consistently they answered the questions, and

other matters related to validity of the test

findings.
Measures of Response Set / Response Style
measures of response pattern.
Testtaker Response Styles:
Response Style - tendency to respond to a test item
or interview question in some characteristic manner
regardless of the content of the item or question.
1. Acquiescence tendency to agree with whatever is
presented.
2. Nonacquiescence - tendency to disagree with
whatever is presented.
3. Socially Desirable Responding tendency to
present oneself in a favorable light.
4. Deviance tendency to make unusual or
uncommon response.
5. Extreme tendency to make extreme ratings on a
scale.
6. Gambling/Cautiousness tendency to guess or
not guess when in doubt.
7. Overly Positive tendency to over report good
behavior.
Impression Management attempt to manipulate
others impressions through the selective exposure of
some information (it may be false info) coupled with
suppression of other information.
Delroy Paulhus and his colleagues have explored
Impression Management in test-taking as well as
the related phenomena of enhancement (claiming
of positive attributes), denial (repudiation of
negative attributes), and self-deception (tendency
to give favorably biased but honestly held selfdescriptions).
Validity Scale subscale of a test designed to assist
in judgments regarding how honestly the testtaker
responded and whether observed responses were
products of response style, carelessness, deliberate
efforts to deceive, or unintentional misunderstanding.
Provide a shorthand indication of how honestly,
diligently, and carefully a testtaker responded
to test items.
WHERE?
Schools, clinics, hospitals, academic research
laboratories, etc.
Assessors may also be found observing behavior
and making assessments in natural settings,
assessees own home, prison cell, or where the
assessee is held captive.
HOW?
Scope and Theory:
California Psychological Inventory (CPI 434)
instrument with a very wide scope. This test contains
434 true-false items. Yield information on many
personality-related variables such as responsibility,
self-acceptance, and dominance.
Measure enduring personality traits across
cultural groups, and predict the behavior of
generally well-functioning people.
Locus (place or site) of Control persons
perception about the source of things happen to him or
her.

a) Internal Locus of Control people who see

themselves as largely responsible for what
happens to them.
b) External Locus of Control people who
attribute what happens to them to external
factors (fate or actions of others).
Blacky Pictures Test theory-based instrument;
cartoonlike pictures of a dog named Blacky in various
situations, and each image is designed to elicit
fantasies associated with various psychoanalytic
themes. (Blum)
The respondents task is to make up stories in
response to such cards, and the stories are
then analyzed according to the guidelines set
forth by Blum.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI) relatively atheoretical; the epitome of an
atheoretical, dust bowl empiricism approach to the
development of a tool to measure personality traits.
(Streiner)
Allows test users to impose their own
theoretical preferences on the interpretation of
the findings.
Procedures and Item Formats:
Face-to-face interviews, computer-administered
tests, behavioral observation, paper-and-pencil
tests, evaluation of case history data and portfolio
data, and recording of physiological responses.
The equipment required for assessment depends
upon the method employed.
Structured Interview interviewer must typically
follow an interview guide and has little leeway in terms
of posing questions not in that guide.
Graphology claim to reveal character traits and
state of health solely from the form and distribution of
the writing itself.
Frame of Reference:
Frame of Reference focus of exploration such as
the time frame (past, present, future) and other
contextual issues that involve people, places, and
events.
What is or who I am right now. It could also be,
what I could be ideally, how I am in the office,
how others see me, how I see others, etc.
Q-sort Technique representative of methodologies
that can be readily applied in the exploration of varied
frames of reference. (Stephenson)
The Q-sort is an assessment technique in which
the task is to sort a group of statements,
usually in perceived rank order ranging from
most descriptive to least descriptive.
Statements on index cards reflect various
perceptions. (Ex. I am confident, or I try hard to
please others).
Carl Rogers used the Q-sort to evaluate the
discrepancy between the perceived actual self
and the ideal self.
Semantic Differential bipolar adjectives separated
by a seven-point rating scale on which respondents
select one point to indicate their response. (Osgood)
Edwards Personal Preference Schedule classic
forced-choice test. (Edwards)
Leadership Q-Test use in military settings and
contains cards with statements that the assessee is
instructed to sort in terms of their perceived
importance to effective leadership. (Cassel)

Tyler Vocational Classification System contains

cards on which occupations are listed; the cards are
sorted in terms of the perceived desirability of each
occupation.
Adjective Checklist in this format or method,
respondents simply check off on a list of adjectives
those that apply to themselves.
Adjective Check List study assessees perceptions
of themselves or others. (Gough and Heilbrun)
Sentence Completion (format) the testtakers task
in responding to an item written is to complete an
incomplete sentence. Items may tap how assessees
feel about themselves or others.
Ex. My classmates are _______.
Scoring and Interpretation:
1) Nomothetic Approach nomos = law; efforts
to learn how a limited number of personality traits
can be applied to all people.
Certain personality traits exist in all people to
varying degrees.
The assessors task is to determine what the
strength of each of these traits are in the
assessee.
Ex. 16 PF 5th Edition (measure the strength of
16 personality factors in the testtaker).
2) Idiographic Approach idios = own/private;
efforts to learn about each individuals unique
constellation of personality traits, with no attempt
to characterize each person according to any
particular set of traits.
Understand the specific traits unique to the
makeup of the individual.
Lists the observed traits and name new trait
terms.
Contemporary psychologists favor nomothetic.
A. Normative Approach testtakers responses and
the presumed strength of a measured trait are
interpreted relative to the strength of that trait in a
sample of a larger population.
B. Ipsative Approach testtakers responses, as
well as the presumed strength of measured traits,
are interpreted relative to the strength of the
measured traits of that same individual.
Issues in Personality Test Development and Use:
Information is from the source. Respondents are
in most instances presumed to know themselves
better than anyone else does and therefore should
be able to supply accurate responses about
themselves.
Building validity scales into self-report tests is one
way that tests developers have attempted to deal
with the potential problems.
Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R)
no need to include any validity scales in their
instrument and have been unenthusiastic about the
use of such scales in other tests. (Paul T. Costa Jr. and
Robert R. McCrae)
17 years old and above.
Self-reported information is reasonably accurate by
consulting external sources such as peer raters.
If an assessee is from a culture different from the
culture in which the test was developed, or if the
assesee is fluent in one or more languages, then
language is an issue.

DEVELOPING INSTRUMENTS TO ASSESS

PERSONALITY

LOGIC AND REASON