Personality

1. Personality Examination

2. The Interview • Personality is measured by interviews, observation, questionnaires and projective tests. • Interview- a face-to-face meeting held for a purpose of gaining information about an individuals personal history, psychological state and personality traits.

3. Types of Interviews • Unstructured Interview - an interview in which conversation is informal and topics are taken up freely as they arise. • Structured Interview - An interview that follows a prearranged plan. • Its used to identify personality disturbances and the study the dynamics of personality. • Diagnostic Interview - Interviews used to find out how a person is feeling and what complaints/symptoms they have.

4. Limitations • Interviewers can be swayed by: • Preconceptions • The interviewers own personality or gender • People lying in their interview. • As well as the Halo Effect- tendency to generalize a favorable/unfavorable first impression to unrelated details of personality.

5. Direct Observation and Rating Scale • Observing people in public places, such as a park, is known as “direct observation”, which is basically and extension of “people watching” • For example, a psychologist may choose to observe a child at play and evaluate the child using a “rating scale”

6. Behavioral Assessment Situational Testing • Behavioral assessment Records frequency of specific behaviors. Alternate to direct observation. • Situational tests are test that simulate real life conditions so that a persons reaction can be observed.

7. Personality Questionnaires • Objective alternative to interviews • Good tests are reliable and valid • Reliable: same score if given multiple times • Valid: measures what it says it measures • Examples of tests: • Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey • CA psychological Inventory • MMPI-2

8. MMPI-2 • Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory • Most widely used • Charts 10 major aspects of personality • Resulting graph is called MMPI-2 Profile

9. Inkblots • Example of a Projective test • Projective tests uncover unconscious wishes through ambiguous stimuli • Known as the Rorshach Technique • The patient is shown inkblots and told to describe what he or she sees • There answers are used to identify conflicts and fantasies • Content is less important than how they organize images

10. Example

11. TAT Example

12. Thematic Apperception Test • Or TAT developed by theorist Henry Murray • Consists of 20 sketches depicting scenes • Patients are asked to form a story around the scene a psychologist might count the number of emotional reactions that appear in a persons story • The limits of the projective tests are ambiguous they are best used in Test Battery

13. TAT example 2

14. Sudden Murder Example • Fred Cowan was a push over at work • Shortly after being fired he went to his work and killed 4 coworkers and police officers before killing himself • Study which was carried out found shy introverted and restrained personalities can become violent when they lose control