Personality Tests

1. Personality Tests Projective and Objective testing measures

2. Measuring Personality • Historical Attempts: • Examination of facial features • Phrenology • Modern Strategies: • Self-report personality inventories • Projective tests

3. How good is a test: Validity and reliability • Reliability = retest and get same score • Validity = does it measure what it is suppose to measure • criterion validity: correlate w/some other test • predictive validity: does it predict future performance • construct validity: does it test abstract variable which it is suppose to measure • Tests should be BOTH reliable and VALID

4. Two basic kinds of tests • Objective tests: • direct or self-report inventories • subject must provide answers to number of objective questions • questions assumed to be valid, normed on others • use large groups of people as comparison group to validate • Projective tests: present subject w/ambiguous stimulus and ask for a response • subject should project a part of their personality into response • assumed from Freudian defense mechanisms

5. Objective or self-report tests

6. Cattell's 16 Personality Factors • Abstractedness imaginative versus practical • Apprehension insecure versus complacent • Dominance aggressive versus passive • Emotional Stability calm and stable versus high-strung • Liveliness enthusiastic versus serious • Openness to Change liberal versus traditional • Perfectionism compulsive and controlled versus indifferent • Privateness pretentious versus unpretentious • Reasoning abstract versus concrete • Rule Consciousness moralistic versus free-thinking • Self-Reliance leader versus follower • Sensitivity sensitive versus tough-minded • Social Boldness uninhibited versus timid • Tension driven and tense versus relaxed and easy going • Vigilance suspicious versus accepting • Warmth open and warmhearted versus aloof and critical

7. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): • Constructed to help diagnose mental disorders • Raw scores converted into standard scores

8. 10 Scales of the MMPI • Scale 1 – Hypochondriasis • Scale 2 – Depression • Scale 3 – Hysteria. • Scale 4 - Psychopathic Deviate • Scale 5 – Masculinity/Femininity • Scale 6 – Paranoia • Scale 7 – Psychasthenia. • Scale 8 – Schizophrenia • Scale 9 – Hypomania • Scale 0 – Social Introversion

9. Validity Scales of the MMPI-2 • The L Scale: Also referred to as the “lie scale,” • The F Scale: detect attempts at “faking good” or “faking bad.” • The K Scale: detects attempts to present oneself in the best possible way. • The ? Scale: the number of items left unanswered. • TRIN Scale: detect patients who respond inconsistently. • VRIN Scale: also detects inconsistent responses. • The Fb Scale: composed of 40 items that less than 10% of normal respondents support.

10. Jane is • high on hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria • Psychopathic deviate, • low on masculinity/femininity • Bill is • similar • shows higher scores on paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia and social introversion • Pete is moderate with only one relatively high score on masculinity/femininity

11. Answer the following questions with 5 (very much), 4, 3, 2, or 1 (not at all), then add up the three columns:

12. Scoring • Add up your scores and determine your “letter” • E:    5 to 10, introverted      20 to 25, extraverted • N:    15 to 25, neuroticistic • P:    5 to 15, psychoticistic • Because this minitest is extremely short, it is NOT to be taken as an accurate assessment of your personality.  It is for illustration purposes only!

14. Evaluation of Self-Report Personality Tests • Strengths: • Relatively inexpensive to administer and score • People may be more willing to disclose personal information • May be used to predict wide range of behavior • Weakness: • Susceptible to potential response biases

15. Projective tests

16. Projective Tests • Unstructured or ambiguous stimuli to be interpreted • Assumption that people “project” unconscious needs, drives, motives onto their responses • Examples: • Rorschach Inkblot Test • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

17. The Rorschach Inkblot Test • a projective personality assessment based on the test taker's reactions to a series of 10 inkblot pictures. • most widely used projective psychological test. • used to help assess personality structure and identify emotional problems and mental disorders. • Based on the principle that subjects viewing neutral, ambiguous stimuli will project their own personalities onto them, thereby revealing a variety of unconscious conflicts and motivations.

18. This is a card with black and red ink, often described as people dancing or touching hands with each other. Possible Sexual Imagery: Male sex organ at top center or, in some cases, a vagina (at the center near the bottom).

19. This is a black and white card, often described as looking like a mask or the face of a fox or wolf. Possible Sexual Imagery: Breasts, primarily the rounded areas at the top of the image.

20. This is a card with black and red ink, frequently visualized as two people facing each other or sometimes a butterfly or moth. • Possible Sexual Imagery: Male sex organs and female breasts, right about where you would expect to find them.

21. Thematic Apperception Test • Another projective measure • intended to evaluate a person's patterns of thought, attitudes, observational capacity, and emotional responses to ambiguous test materials. • Consists of a set of cards that portray human figures in a variety of settings and situations. • The subject is asked to tell the examiner a story about each card that includes the following elements: • the event shown in the picture; • what has led up to it; • what the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking • the outcome of the event.

22. What the event shown in the picture? • What has led up to this event? • What are the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking • What is the outcome of the event?

23. What the event shown in the picture? • What has led up to this event? • What are the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking • What is the outcome of the event?

24. What the event shown in the picture? • What has led up to this event? • What are the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking • What is the outcome of the event?

25. Interpreting the Results: • Because the TAT is an example of a projective instrument— • many psychologists prefer not to call it a "test,“ • “Test” implies that there are "right" and "wrong" answers to the questions. • Psychologists consider the term "technique" to be a more accurate description of the TAT and other projective assessments

26. Evaluation of Projective Tests • Drawbacks: • Scoring of responses based on subjective impressions • Problem of stimulus pull • Questions about overall validity and utility • Proponents argue they can yield valuable information about personality.