TESTS

• Personality Assessment

  The measurement and evaluation of psychological traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of humor, cognitive and behavioral styles, and/or related individual characteristics
• Self-concept measure

  An instrument designed to yield information relevant to how an individual sees him- or herself with regard to selected psychological variables
• Personality according to Hall and Lindzey

  "It is our conviction that no substantive definition of personality can be applied with any generality" and "Personality is defined by the particular empirical concepts which are a part of the theory of personality employed by the observer"
• Personality Traits

  (Guilford, 1959) Any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another
• Who is being assessed, and who is doing the assessing?

  Another person as the referent: In some situations, the best available method for the assessment of personality, behavior, or both involves reporting by a third party such as a parent, teacher, peer, supervisor, spouse, or trained observer
• Self-concept

  Defined as one’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and related thoughts about oneself
• Personality according to Menninger

  "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."
• Response style

  Refers to a tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of the item or questions
• Personality Types


  • Hippocrates: Melancholic - depressed, Phlegmatic - calm, apathy, Sanguine - happy, optimistic, Choleric - hot tempered; Jung: basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); Holland: argued that most people can be categorized as one of the following six personality types: Artistic, Enterprising, Investigative, Social, Realistic, or Conventional; Friedman & Rosenman: Type A personality characterized by competitiveness, haste, restlessness, impatience, feelings of being time-pressured, and strong needs for achievement and dominance. Type B personality has the opposite traits of Type A, being mellow or laid-back
• Who is being assessed, and who is doing the assessing?

  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
• Generosity error – bias leads to higher ratings
• What is assessed when a personality assessment is conducted?

  Personality measures are tools used to gain insight into a wide array of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with all aspects of the human experience. Some tests are designed to measure particular traits (such as introversion) or states (such as test anxiety), whereas others focus on descriptions of behavior, usually in particular contexts
• Severity error – ratings are consistently negative
• Self-concept differentiation

  Refers to the degree to which a person has different self-concepts in different roles
• Personality

  An individual’s unique constellation of psychological traits that is relatively stable over time
• Personality according to McClelland

  "the most adequate conceptualization of a person’s behavior in all its detail."
• Personality Types

  A constellation of traits that is similar in pattern to one identified category of personality within a taxonomy of personalities
• Eight Response Styles

  • Impression Management
• Leniency error – rating mistake, ratings are consistently positive
• Error of central tendency – a general tendency to rate everyone near the midpoint of a rating scale
• Self-report

  A process wherein information about assessees is supplied by the assessees themselves
• External locus of control

  People who are prone to attribute what happens to them to external factors (such as fate or the actions of others)
• Personality assessments structured and conducted

  1. Scope and Theory

  2. Procedures and item formats

  3. Frame of reference

  4. Scoring and Interpretation
• Inkblots as Projective Stimuli

  • The Rorschach
• Personality assessments are conducted in traditional sites such as schools, clinics, hospitals, academic research laboratories, employment counseling and vocational selection centers, and the offices of psychologists and counselors
• Internal locus of control

  People who see themselves as largely responsible for what happens to them
• Projective hypothesis

  Individual supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual’s own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding
• Eight Response Styles

  • Impression Management
  • Social Desirable Response
  • Acquiescence
  • Nonaquiescence
  • Deviance
  • Extreme
  • Gambling/Cautiousness
  • Overly Positive
• Personality Assessment Methods

  1. Objective Method

  2. Projective Method
• Locus of control

  A person’s perception about the source of things that happen to him or her
• Power test

  When time limit is long enough to allow test takers to attempt all items
• Shifting Cultural Lenses

  Tied to critical thinking and hypothesis testing, permits the clinician to test another hypothesis that the observed behavior is culture-specific and arises from long-held family beliefs
• Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D)

  • Widely used self-report measure of depressive symptoms consisting of 20 items, can be administered to ages 13-65 years old and can be completed for approximately 5 minutes
• Forensic Psychological Assessment - Theory and application of psychological evaluation and measurement in a legal context
• Clinical Prediction

  Application of clinician's own training and clinical experience as determining factor in clinical judgment and actions
• Neuropsychological testing

  Measures how well the brain works, tests for a range of menta
• Standard battery

  Group of tests including one intelligence test, at least one personality test, and a test designed to screen for neurological deficit
• Special Application of Clinical Measures

  • MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC)
  • MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised
  • Addiction Potential Scale (APS)
  • Addiction Acknowledgement Scale (AAS)
  • Addiction Severity Index (ASI)
  • Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST)
• Culturally Informed Psychological Assessment

  Keenly perceptive and responsive to issues of acculturation, values, identity, worldview, language, and other culture-related variables as they may impact the evaluation process
• Beck Depression Inventory-II

  • Self-report measure consisting of 21 items, each tapping a specific symptom or attitude associated with depression