Scribd
Upload
28 views2 pages

Lesson 32

The document discusses personality testing and different approaches to assessing personality. It describes personality as consisting of relatively enduring characteristics that differentiate people and influence consistent behavior. Methods of assessing personality include interviews, behavioral observation, and psychological tests. Objective personality tests directly ask questions about behaviors while projective tests use ambiguous stimuli to project inner thoughts and feelings. The theoretical orientation of the test developer influences test content and how personality is measured, such as the psychodynamic focus on unconscious forces or trait theories emphasizing basic descriptive traits.

Uploaded by

jf3082000
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
28 views2 pages

Lesson 32

The document discusses personality testing and different approaches to assessing personality. It describes personality as consisting of relatively enduring characteristics that differentiate people and influence consistent behavior. Methods of assessing personality include interviews, behavioral observation, and psychological tests. Objective personality tests directly ask questions about behaviors while projective tests use ambiguous stimuli to project inner thoughts and feelings. The theoretical orientation of the test developer influences test content and how personality is measured, such as the psychodynamic focus on unconscious forces or trait theories emphasizing basic descriptive traits.

Uploaded by

jf3082000
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Psychological Testing and Measurement (PSY-P631) VU

Lesson 32
Personality Testing

Before we discuss the various approaches to the assessment of personality, we need to understand what
personality is. Personality has been defined in many ways:
• The sum total of characteristics on the basis of which people can be differentiated from each other.
• The stability in a person’s behavior across different situations.
• Characteristic ways in which people behave.
• Characteristics that are relatively enduring, and that make us behave in a consistent and predictable
way.

Methods of Assessment of Personality:


• Interview
• Observation and behavioral assessment
• Psychological tests

1. Interview:
Interview is direct, face to face encounter and interaction between the psychologist and the person being
assessed. Verbal as well as non-verbal information is available to the psychologist. Interviews are usually
used to supplement information gathered through other sources. Skill of the interviewer is very important
since the worth and utility of the interview depends on how well he can draw relevant information from
the interviewee.

2. Behavioral Assessment:
It refers to direct observation of behavior, for investigating, understanding, and describing personality
characteristics. Skill and expertise of the observer are the most significant ingredients of the observation
process.

3. Psychological Tests:
Psychological tests are standard measures devised in order to objectively assess personality and behavior.
Like any other type of psychological tests personality tests also have to be valid and reliable. Availability of
norms is an additional characteristic.
Psychological tests are generally of two types:
1. Objective tests/ personality inventories/ self- report measures
2. Projective tests

Objective Tests/ Personality Inventories/ Self- Report Measures:


Measures wherein the subjects are asked questions about a sample of their behavior
For example MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is the most frequently used personality
test. It was initially developed to identify people having specific sorts of psychological difficulties. But it
can predict a variety of other behaviors too. It can identify problems and tendencies like Depression,
Hysteria, Paranoia, and Schizophrenia.

Projective Tests/ Techniques:


Tests in which the subject is first shown an ambiguous stimulus and then he has to describe it or tell a story
about it is known as projective tests.
The most famous and frequently used projective tests are:
• Rorschach test, and
• TAT or Thematic Apperception Test

How Is the Content of A Personality Test Decided?


What the test will contain and how it will measure personality will be affected by the theoretical orientation
of the test developer. Similarly, the choice of a test to assess personality also depends on how one defines
personality

©copyright Virtual University of Pakistan


Psychological Testing and Measurement (PSY-P631) VU

1. Psychodynamic Approach:
This approach focuses upon the unconscious determinants of personality i.e., psychologists belonging to
this approach believe that unconscious forces determine our personality. Unconscious is the part of
personality which we are not aware of. Unconscious contains instinctual drives: Infantile wishes, Desires,
Demands, and Needs.
Therefore, the test based on this orientation will try to unfold and explore the unconscious.

2. Trait Approaches:
These are the approaches that propose that there are certain traits that form the basis of an individual’s
personality. These approaches seek to identify the basic traits necessary to describe and understand
personality. Traits are enduring dimensions of personality characteristics that differentiate a person from
others. Trait theories do not imply the absence or presence of different traits in different people i.e.,
either/or situation.
These assume that some people are relatively high on some traits whereas, some are low on the same traits.

Trait theories based upon factor analysis:


Factor analysis: a statistical method whereby relationships between a large number of variables are
summarized into fewer patterns. These patterns are more general in nature.
For example a researcher prepares a list of traits that people may like in an ideal man.
The extensive list is then administered to a large number of people, who are asked to choose traits that may
describe an ideal man. Through the factor analysis, the responses are statistically combined and the traits
associated with one another in the same set (or person) are computed. Thus the most fundamental patterns
are identified. These patterns are called factors.

Raymond Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factors:


After using factor analysis Cattell proposed that two types of characteristics form our personality; Surface
traits, and source traits

Eysenck’s Dimensions of Personality:


According to Eysenck, personality can be understood and described in terms of just two major dimensions;
Introversion-extroversion, and neuroticism-stability
On the first dimension, people can be rated ranging from introverts to extroverts: the rest of the traits fall
in between. The second dimension is independent of the first one, and ranges from being neurotic to being
stable. Introverts are quiet, passive, and careful people. Extroverts are outgoing, sociable, and active people.
Neurotics are moody, touchy, and anxious people. Stable are calm, care-free, and even-tempered people.
Eysenck evaluated a number of people along these dimensions. Using the information thus obtained, he
could accurately predict people’s behavior in a variety of situations.

3. Social Cognitive Approach to Personality:


This approach emphasizes upon the role of people’s cognitions in determining their personalities.
Cognitions include: people’s thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values. These approaches consider the
“inner” variables to be important in determining one’s personality. These approaches emphasize the
reciprocity between individuals and their environment. There exists a web of reciprocity, consisting of the
interaction of environment and people’s behavior. Our environment affects our behavior, and our behavior
in turn influences our environment and causes modifications in the environment. The modified
environment in turn, affects our behavior.

©copyright Virtual University of Pakistan

You might also like