Understanding Personality Assessment: Traits, Measurement, and Controversial Methods - Pro, Study notes of Psychology

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PSYC 4210

Personality

Defining Personality

“The most adequate conceptualization of a person’s behavior in all its detail” (McClelland,, 1951) “The individual as a whole, his height and weight and loves and hates and blood pressure and reflexes… and enlarged tonsils” (Menninger, 1953) “Psychology’s garbage bin in that any research which doesn’t fit in [existing areas] can be labeled personality” (Byrne, 1974) “…no substantive definition of personality can be applied with any generality” (Hall & Lindzey, 1970) “The…reason for psychology’s failure to understand what people are and how they act…is that personality theory has looked for inner traits when it should have been looking for social context” (Weisstein, 1939)

Introduction

 What is personality?

 (^) Can include:

• Traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, identity, sense of humor, cognitive/behavioral styles

 Major perspectives on the measurement of

personality:

1. Trait (Hogan, 1990)
2. Phenomenological (Kelly, 1955)
   3. Psychodynamic (Freud, MCClelland, Murray)
   4. Situational (James)
   5. Interactionist (Mischel; me)

Introduction (con’t)

 (^) Components

 Traits, types, and states

 (^) Cross situational consistency?  (^) Distinguished from GMA

Issues: Who

 (^) Who can report on personality?  (^) Self-report  (^) Popular Methods  (^) Assumptions  (^) What is being measured with self-reports?

Self-report items

I am a very private person I am always prepared I am easy to satisfy I am interested in many things I am not embarrassed easily I like to hurt people Sometimes I get so mad I could just kill someone

Response Sets

 (^) The way a person responds to a personality test  (^) Observed score is a function of response sets (X = T + E)

 Social desirability, Acquiescence,

Deviance

 (^) Are responses motivated/inaccurate or valid?

Issues: Who

 Other person as a referent

 Popular methods

 What is being measured with others’ reports?

 (^) Rater Bias

 Does it matter who serves as the other?

 Self vs. Other ratings

 Interrater agreement

 Criterion Related Validity

Rater Bias

 (^) Leniency  (^) Severity  (^) Central tendency  (^) Halo

 True vs. illusory halo

 (^) Contributing factors

 Similar-to-me, prior information,

attractiveness, liking

How: Methods of Assessment

 (^) Objective personality assessment  (^) Psychoanalytic assessment  (^) Behavioral observation  (^) Interviews

How? Objective Assessment

 (^) Historical perspective  (^) Designing an objective measure

 Rational vs. Empirical development

 (^) Issues in objective measurement

 Advantages

 Disadvantages

Empirical Keying

 (^) Criterion group  (^) Steps

1. Large item pool

2. Administer items to 2 groups

3. Item analysis

4. Cross-validate

 (^) Dust bowl empiricism

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

 Uses

 Dimensions

 (^) Extraversion-introversion (E-I)  (^) Sensor-Intuitor (S-N)  (^) Thinker-Feeler (T-F)  (^) Judging-perceiving (J-P)

 Scoring

 Limitations

NEO-PI (AKA The Big 5)

 Development

 (^) Lexical approach

 Dimensions

 (^) O penness to Experience  (^) C onscientiousness  (^) E xtraversion  (^) A greeableness  (^) N euroticism

 Issues

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

 Development

 Scales

1. Hypochondriasis (Hs) 6. Paranoia (P)
2. Depression (D) 7. Psychasthenia (Pt)
3. Hysteria (Hy) 8. Schizophrenia (Sc)
4. Psychopathic deviate (Pd) 9. Hypomania (Ma)
5. Masculinity/femininity (Mf) 10. Social Introversion (SI)

 Uses

 Issues

How? Projective Measures

 (^) Rationale  (^) Methods of projective assessment  (^) Issues w/ projective tests

 Advantages & disadvantages

Types of projective tests

 Association techniques (e.g., Rorschach)

 Construction techniques (e.g., TAT)

 Completion technique (e.g., Minor Sentence Completion)

 Expressive technique (e.g., Draw a Person Test)

 Ordering technique (e.g., Id, Ego, and Superego Test)

Minor Sentence Completion

If only I could_____________________ People I know____________________ I can always _____________________ I think guys______________________ What makes me sad is ____________ I think girls______________________ My father _______________________ Where I live_____________________ My mother was the type____________ My health is____________________

Final Thoughts on Personality Assessment

 Psychometric Soundness

 (^) Personality constructs predict (Meriac & Hoffman; Costa & McCrae)  (^) Construct Validity evidence  (^) Content validity  (^) Reliability Evidence

 Correlations with intelligence

 (^) Adverse impact  (^) Incremental validity

 Future research

 (^) Interactions  (^) Situation

The Cutting Edge: Recent and Controversial Measurement  (^) Approach 1: Polygraph testing

 Measurement procedure

 Limitations (countermeasures & false

positive/negative)

 Employee Polygraph Protection Act (1988)

 (^) Approach 2: Paper and pencil integrity tests

 Overt Integrity Tests (Clear purpose)

 Covert Integrity Tests (General Purpose)

Paper & Pencil Integrity Tests Clear-Purpose General-Purpose Approach (^) Assumptions (^) Sample Items Typical employee thief is:

• tempted to steal tempted to steal
• tempted to steal rationalizes theft
• tempted to steal punish thieves less
• tempted to steal attributes more theft to others - “Should a person be fired if caught stealing $5.00?” - “Ever thought about stealing?” - _“You freely admit your mistakes.”
• You like to do things that shock people.”_
• tempted to steal Employee theft is just one element of a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior Other elements: vandalism, drug/ alcohol abuse, sabotage, absenteeism, grievances, etc.

The Cutting Edge: Recent and Controversial Measurement

 Graphology

 Method

 Silly Europeans

 Limitations (c.f., Rafaeli & Klimoski, 1983; Neter et al.)

 Conditional Reasoning

 Objective & Psychoanalytic

Reasoning by Inference Example American cars have gotten better in the past 15 years. American carmakers started to build better cars when they began to lose business to the Japanese. Many American buyers thought foreign cars were better made. Which of the following is the most logical conclusion based on the above? a.America was the largest producer of automotive parts 15 years ago. b.Swedish carmakers lost business in America 15 years ago. c.The Japanese knew more about building good cars 15 years ago. d.American carmakers built cars to wear out 15 years ago so they could make a lot of money selling parts.

Reasoning by Inference Example When going on job interviews, applicants new to the job search are likely to be nervous and make mistakes because they have less experience being interviewed. With experience being interviewed, however, an applicant learns what to expect, such as what types of questions to expect, and how to answer in ways that will impress interviewers. Many believe that the key to doing well in interviews is to gain experience. Which of the following most weakens the argument that gaining experience is the key to doing well? a.Interviewers form 1st^ impressions of applicants based on advanced knowledge of the applicant’s background, scores, etc. b.Applicants who are interviewed after an outstanding candidate do less well that if they were interviewed by a poor candidate. c.Interviewers prefer short answers, so experience may not help. d.The length of the average interview is 15 minutes, and can be as long as 2 hours. Thus, experience won’t help.