Slide 12

• Personality Characteristics: non intellective aspects of human behavior, typically distinguished from mental abilities
• Personality: relatively stable and distinctive patterns of behavior that characterize an individual and his or her reactions to the environment
• personality traits: relative enduring tendencies to act, think, or feel in a certain manner in any given circumstance and that distinguish one person from another
• personality types: general descriptions of people
• personality states: refers to emotional reactions that vary from one situation to another
• self concept: a person's self-definition, an organized and relatively consistent set of assumptions that a person has about himself or herself
• self-report questionnaires on assessing personalty: provided a list of statements and required subjects to respond in some way to each to indicate whether the statement applied to them

  • true or false
• structured ("objective") assessment of personality

  • has structure, lacks ambiguity
  • clear and defined stimulus
  • clear questions with clear answer choices
• projective assessment of personality

  • ambiguous stimulus
  • the subject has few guidelines about what type of response is required
• deductive strategies in structured personality test construction

  • uses reason and logic
  • logical-content strategy
  • uses logic and "face validity" in writing items
  • assumes that test items and the client's answers will accurately describe client's behavior
  • theoretical strategy
  • items are consistent with theory
  • may use statistics
• empirical strategies in structured personality test construction

  • relies on data collection and statistics to determine meaning of test response or the nature of personality
  • criterion-group strategy
  • uses statistics to identify items that are answered differently by members of criterion vs members of control group
  • factor analysis
  • uses factor analysis to determine meaning of items and intercorrelations between items and constructs
• Woodworth Personal Data Sheet

  • deductive: logical-content strategy
  • first personality test WW1
  • which recruits are likely to break down in combat
  • 116 yes-no questions
  • symptoms of emotional disorders
  • high scorers: called in for an interview
• Woodworth Personal Data Sheet

  • critical assumption: clients would respond honestly
  • test produced a single score
• Multidimensional Logical-Content Scale

  • Bell Adjustment Inventory
  • adjustment in homelife
  • adjustment in social life
  • emotional functioning
• Multidimensional Logical-Content Scale

  • Bernreuter Personality Inventory
  • for clients 13 and older
  • 6 traits
  • produce multiple scores rather than a single overall score
• Mooney Problem Checklist

  • recurring problems based on the clinical case history data of 4000 written statements of HS students
• Criticisms of deductive: logical-content strategy

  • client may not be able to "objectively" assess their behavior
  • client may not interpret items the same way
• Edwards Personal Preference Schedule

  • deductive: theoretical strategy
  • no right or wrong answers
  • based on Murray's Theory of Needs
  • incorporates a social desirability check
  • 1500 college students, 9000 adults
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

  • empirical: criterion-group strategy
  • contains validity, clinical, and content scales
  • main purpose: diagnosis of major psychiatric conditions
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

  • criterion group: inpatients at the University of Minnesota hospital
  • L scale: lie scale
  • K scale: defensiveness scale
  • F scale: infrequency scale
• California Psychological Inventory

  • empirical: criterion-group strategy
  • less clinical compared to MMPI
  • counseling settings
  • 20 scales; 4 categories
• guildford-zimmerman temperament survey

  • empirical: factor analytic strategy
  • looked at existing personality tests and factor-analyzed the items
  • 10 dimensions of personality
  • yes-no items
  • validity scales
• Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)

  • source traits
  • 9 sets of norms
• Personality Research Form and Jackson Personality Inventory

  • Empirical: Factor Analytic Strategy
  • based on Murray's theory of needs
  • constructed validity scales
  • constructed their own definitions of the needs, turning them into traits
• Personality Research Form

  • 15 scales
  • organized in five high-order dimensions
  • Analytical, extroverted, emotional, opportunistic, dependable