Applications in Clinical & Counseling Settings:

1. Applications in Clinical & Counseling Settings: Structured Personality Tests

2. Each of the statements below describes a different way a person can be. Please indicate for each statement is extremely uncharacteristic (1) of you, somewhat uncharacteristic (2), neither uncharacteristic nor characteristic (3), somewhat characteristic (4), or extremely characteristic (5), using the numbers as indicated. __ 1. I form opinions about everything. __ 2. I prefer to avoid taking extreme positions. (R) __ 3. It is very important to me to hold strong opinions. __ 4. I want to know exactly what is good and bad about everything. __ 5. I often prefer to remain neutral about complex issues. (R) __ 6. If something does not affect me, I do not usually determine if it is good or bad. (R) __ 7. I enjoy strongly liking and disliking new things. __ 8. There are many things for which I do not have a preference. (R) __ 9. It bothers me to remain neutral. __ 10. I like to have strong opinions even when I am not personally involved. __ 11. I have many more opinions than the average person. __ 12. I would rather have a strong opinion than no opinion at all. __ 13. I pay a lot of attention to whether things are good or bad. __ 14. I only form strong opinions when I have to. (R) __ 15. I like to decide that new things are really good or really bad. __ 16. I am pretty much indifferent to many important issues. (R)

3. Jarvis & Petty (1996) • reasoned that some people might be more prone to evaluate (i.e., form attitudes, opinions) than others • developed a scale to measure people’s need to evaluate (NES: need to evaluate scale)

4. Scale Norms • Mean -- 52 (3.27) • Standard Deviation -- 10 (.63) • Upper third -- > 56 • Lower third -- < 47

5. Study 1 • students completed NES and answered a 29 item questionnaire that asked for their attitudes towards various national issues (e.g., environmental protection, mandatory national service, legalized abortion, capital punishment, preferential hiring of minority groups) • asked if they agreed, disagreed, or had “no opinion” • participants low in NES endorsed “no opinion” significantly more often than those medium or high

6. Study 2 • presented student participants with 24 paintings from various styles and periods • instructed to list their thoughts regarding each painting • thoughts were coded as evaluative (e.g., I would not hang this in my home, pretty colours, I really like the colours, very gross and disturbing) or non-evaluative (two men working, lots of colour) • results indicated that high NES participants spontaneously came up with more evaluative statements than low or moderate NES participants

7. Study 3 • student participants completed NES, and then were asked to describe the day they had yesterday. Thoughts were coded for • evaluative thoughts • I was both relieved and upset by my grade, the moon was beautiful on the way home, some of the songs at the concert were really good, I did quite well • non-evaluative thoughts • Woke up at 8 am and took my dog for a walk, a friend of mine from back home called and so I talked to him for a minute • high NES participants showed an avg. of nearly 3 times as many evaluative thoughts as low, moderate NES participants; also, fewer non-evaluative thoughts

8. Personality • the relatively stable and distinctive patterns of behaviour that characterize an individual and his or her reactions to the environment

9. Personality Traits • relatively enduring tendencies to act, think, or feel in a certain manner in any given circumstance that distinguish one person from another

10. Importance of Measuring Personality Traits • still enough nuclear & biological weapons in the world to destroy the world’s population several times over • about 120,000 U.S. servicemen & women engaged in nuclear duties, maintaining, guarding, transporting, training & using the weapons • these individuals are screened through something called a Personnel Reliability Program; about 5,000 people a year are removed from nuclear duties because of a concern about the stability of their personalities

11. Types of Personality Tests • Structured • Fixed alternatives as responses • Unstructured • Open-ended responses

12. Strategies for Structured Personality Test Construction Logical Content Deductive Theoretical Criterion Group Empirical Factor Analysis

13. Logical Content Strategy • items are selected from a process of logical deduction of what kinds of items would represent the kinds of personality we’re interested in

14. Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (1920) • First personality inventory ever developed • Developed in WWI to identify military recruits likely to break down in combat

15. Sample Test Items • Have you failed to get a square deal in life? • Is your speech free from stutter & stammer? • Does the sight of blood make you sick & dizzy? • Do you sometimes wish that you had never been born? • Do people find fault with you much? • Do you drink a fifth of whisky a day? • Do you wet the bed at night?

16. Mooney Problem Checklist (1950) • items gleaned from case records, counselling interviews, & a list of problems elicited from 4000 high school students • available in jr. high, high school, college & adult forms • problems include morals & religion, finances & living conditions, adjustment to school work, social relations • no score is computed

17. Sample Items • Read the list slowly and as you come to a problem which is troubling you, draw a line under it: • Often have headaches • Too crowded at home • Unpopular • Drinking • Getting low grades

18. Problems with Logical Content Tests • Assumes respondents are honest, motivated to cooperate, careful in answering • Assumes respondents are capable of evaluating own behaviour

19. Theoretical Strategy • another type of deductive strategy involves working from a theory of personality, and deriving items from the theory • one of the most popular theories of personality was Murray’s (1938) theory of needs • proposed that human behaviour was enacted to fulfill several basic needs:

20. Examples of Needs • Achievement • To accomplish something difficulty. To master, manipulate, or organize physical objects, human beings, or ideas. • Affiliation • To form friendships & associations. To greet, join, & live with others. • Aggression • To overcome opposition forcefully. To fight. To revenge an injury. To attack, injure or kill another.

21. Jackson Personality Inventory (1976) • very popular current measure of personality is the Jackson Personality Inventory • items are roughly based on Murray’s theory • Latest version (JPI-R) consists of 300 true-false items that produce 15 scale scores • These 15 scales have been organized into five higher-order dimensions • Analytical • Extroverted • Emotional • Opportunistic • Dependable • used rigorous statistical techniques to identify items – generated more than 100 items for each scale, administered them to over 1000 university students • item analysis identified items that correlated highly with total scale, but minimally with other scales

22. Example Items of the JPI • I was a very active child. • I would enjoy bluffing my way into an exclusive club or private party. • I have sometimes hesitated before making a decision. • I dislike eating alone. • I usually have several projects going at once.

23. Empirical Strategies:The Criterion-Group Strategy • begins with a criterion group; items selected that differentiate criterion group from a control group • e.g. measure of aggression in children; have teachers nominate aggressive children and give a whole bunch of items to these children and to a group of control children; items that discriminate between the two groups are selected for the final scale, regardless of what the items say

24. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) • most widely used & thoroughly researched personality test for half a century • conceived in 1930's; by 1960's was the leading personality test & used not only with psychiatric patients for whom it was originally developed, but also with normal subjects in counselling, employment, military, forensic settings • by 1980's, several thousand references using MMPI

25. Original Scale Development • 8 of the scales developed by criterion keying; chose items that differentiated small sample (50) of patients & control group of 724 visitors & relatives of patients • male-female scale, originally designed to distinguish between homosexual heterosexual males, developed from differences between male soldiers & female airline employees • social introversion scale (added later), derived from responses of 2 contrasted groups of college students selected on basis of extreme scores on a test of introversion-extraversion

26. Clinical Scales

27. Validity Scales

28. MMPI-2 • became evident in the 1980’s that norms were outdated • committee charged with restandardizing MMPI had to redesign instrument without losing all information from past research • decided to retain most of items, all the original clinical & validity scales, & many of the supplementary scales • major changes were: • development of uniform T scores for 8 original clinical scales & all the content scales • revision & deletion of outdated or otherwise objectionable items & addition of new items • creation of new validity, supplementary & content scales • separation into 2 versions for different age groups

29. MMPI-2 Items • 567 affirmative statement (True-False) • first 370 are virtually identical to those in MMPI except for editorial changes & reordering -- provide all responses needed to score original 10 clinical & three validity scales • remaining 197 items (107 of which are new) are needed to score a wide range of new & revised scales & subscales • items vary widely in content, covering such areas as general health; affective, neurological & motor symptoms; sexual, political & social attitudes; educational, occupational, family & marital questions; many well-known neurotic or psychotic behaviour manifestations (eg. Obsessive compulsive, hallucinations, phobias, etc)

30. Sample Items • My sleep is fitful and disturbed. (39) • I believe I am being plotted against. (138) • I am worried about sex. (166) • When I get bored I like to stir up some excitement. (169) • Most people inwardly dislike putting themselves out to help other people (286).

31. Scoring & Interpretation • McCall’s T (mean – 50, standard deviation – 10) used for all scales, based on control group • With original scale, T scores of 70 (2 s.d.’s above the mean) were considered significantly elevated • With MMPI-2, T scores of 65 considered significant • Pattern analysis • Earlier forms, e.g., “paranoid valley” • Meehl’s two-point codes

32. “ Paranoid Valley”

33. Psychometric Properties • Split-half reliabilities for most scales in the 70’s, with a few much higher • Test-retest reliabilities are adequate (median in the .80’s) • Validity studies suggest that MMPI is related to: • Alcoholism & substance abuse (elevated F, 4 & 9) • PTSD • Criminality & delinquency • Neurological disorders

34. NNPI:No Nonsense Personality Inventory

35. Factor Analytic Strategy • uses factor analysis to derive the basic dimensions of personality • most famous test developed by R.B. Cattell • started with a list of 4504 personality “traits” applicable to human beings • reduced the list to 171 that represented the entire range • Had college students rate their friends on these 171 traits • initial factor analysis identified 36 dimensions (surface traits) • did a second factor analysis that produced 16 factors (source traits) • used this as the basis of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

36. 16PF

37. Combination Strategies: the NEO • Modern trend is to mix strategies • NEO based on review of factor analytic studies of personality and personality theory, which suggests that there are five factors underlying most of the domains in personality -- have been referred to as the big five • Three of these five (from which NEO is named): • Neuroticism • Extraversion • Openness • Remaining two dimensions are: • Conscientiousness • Agreeableness

38. The Big Five

39. Structure of NEO PI-R • Each domain or dimension has 6 “facets” (e.g., 6 facets of neuroticism are anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability) • 18 facets in total • 14 items in each facet; 7 positively worded, 7 negatively worded • Respondents indicate answer on a five-point Likert scale (“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”

40. Sample Items

41. Scoring • Raw scores are converted to T-scores for each facet • Score interpretations: • Below 35 – very low • 35 to 45 – low • 45 to 55 – average • 55 to 65 – high • Above 65 – very high

43. Psychometric Properties of NEO PI-R • Coefficient alphas for the domains range from .86 (agreeableness) to .92 (neuroticism) • Coefficient alphas for facets range from .56 to .81 • Test-retest reliabilities for domains range from .75 to .83 (for a 3-month interval) • Validity evidence: • Psychotherapy patients score higher on neuroticism • Drug abusers score low on agreeableness & conscientiousness