Chapter 7 Various Methods in Personality Assessment

Purpose of this chapter: To discuss methods used by psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists for studying personality. Each discipline conducts their studies differently. Psychology was one of the first fields to study personality, so the field’s creation of “personality assessment” has been implemented into other fields like anthropology and sociology.

Personality Assessment

• Lanyon and Goodstein have recently formulated a specific definition of personality disorder, which “refers to the process of gathering and organization information about another person in the expectation that this information will lead to a better understanding of the person.”
• Various methods of personality assessment include: observation, interviews, tests, analysis of life history materials, folklore and art, and analyses of materials.

Observation of Behavior

• Unstructured (uncontrolled): The watching and recording of what people do in real life situations. Also called the “naturalistic method.”
• Structured (controlled): Controlled through something like an interview or questionnaire where participants have control over actions.

Interviews and Questionnaires

• Interview methods are very common like the observation method.
• Telephone interviews and surveying has become more common due to cost efficiency.
• Lanyon and Goodstein believe that face-to-face interviews are better for a few reasons. These reasons include that face-to-face interviews are less structured and more flexible, it builds a trust and comfort between interviewer and participants, in situations for assessing mental-health related problems, the interviewer may be able to give personal attention, and lastly the interview provides a chance to get the subject’s reactions.
• This chapter focuses on face-to-face interviews.
• Standardized interviews: Usually conducted with predetermined interview schedule, which is designed to collect the same kinds of information from a number of respondents.
• Non-standardized interviews: Carried out usually without a definite interview schedule. Each respondent may be asked different types of questions.
• Different interviews have their advantages and disadvantages. Some disadvantage factors that may inhibit or facilitate interview process include competing time demands, ego threat, etiquette, and unconscious experience.
• On the other hand, some positive factors include fulfilling expectations, recognition, altruistic appeals, sympathetic understanding, new experience, catharsis, the need for meaning, and extrinsic rewards.

Problems of Reliability and Validity in Data Collection

• Reliability refers generally to the repeatability of dependability of the instruments or measures used by the researcher.
• Validity refers to “truthfulness” of measurement, that is, the extent to which an instrument measures what it is suppose to measure.
• There are three ways to measure validity: Content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity.
• Content Validity: refers to the extent to which a measure adequately represents all significant components of a phenomenon in question.
• Criterion-related validity: concerns mainly the practical usefulness of an instrument designed to measure a specific trait of behavior. The two types of criterion-related validity include concurrent validity and predictive validity.
• Construct validity: refers to a validation of the theory behind the measurement. Essentially a process of documenting supporting evidence.

Personality Tests

• Personality tests are the most widely used method among psychologists. They are the standardized instruments that are designed to measure personality traits of an individual.
• Assumed in personality tests are: (1) stability of personal dispositions over time, (2) prevalence of major common traits in all individuals, (3) comparability of individual traits in terms of their strength, (4) the sum total of measured traits as one’s personality, (5) the situations or conditions under which personality tests are administered, are identical for all respondents.
• Objective Tests: generally refer to paper-and-pencil personality inventories that are designed to elicit highly standardized responses from the subject. Usually these are highly structured with questions including “true”/”false” or “agree”/”disagree.”
• Projective Tests: indirect methods of assessing personality by presenting the subject with ambiguous stimuli or materials, so that the subject’s spontaneous (or unconscious) response can be observed and analyzed.
• Fun Fact: The terms Projection was first used by Freud referring to ego defense mechanism.

Different Kinds of Projective Tests:

1. Association Techniques: Associational response to stimulus words, inkblots, and sounds. (Rorschach Test)
2. Construction Techniques: Construction or creation of stories about pictures. (Thematic Apperception Test)
3. Completion Techniques: Completion of incomplete sentences or stories.
4. Choice or Ordering Techniques: selection of appropriate items from a number of hypothetical alternatives, or arranging ambiguous items in terms of systematic order or sequence.
5. Expressive Techniques: Expressions in drawing, painting, or playing hypothetical roles.

• The most commonly used tests are the Rorschach Test and Thematic Apperception.

The Rorschach Test

• Invented by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist.
• Consists of ten cards or plates which, which display various shapes and colors of inkblots but indicate no clear meanings by themselves.
• There are no right or wrong answers when determining what the inkblots mean.
• The first step is to ask the subject “What do you see?”
• The second step involves a more detailed inquiry, which is to ask the subject to examine each card again in sequence and to account for his/her perceptions.
• A chart in our book shows how each interpretation can reveal various personality traits. (page 221)
• For example, if someone sees a scoring category on the entire blot they may be someone who has the ability to be organized and integrate material.
• Characteristics can be scored based on location, determinant, popularity-originality, content, and form-level.
• Has been used in cross-cultural research.

The Thematic Apperception Test

• Originally designed by C.D. Morgan and Henry A. Murray in 1935.
• The test consists of 30 black-and-white picture cards and one blank card.
• Depending on the age and sex of the subject, the tester will choose a particular set of cards to show to the subject.
• The subject has to make up a story based on the story and what led up to the scene they are depicting, what is going on in the present, what the people in the story are feeling, and what the outcome of the story will be.
• This could also be known as the “test of imagination” which comes from the subject’s personality and feelings.
• Some of the disadvantages of the test include (1) very little understanding, (2) low reliabilities, (3) too heavy reliance on intuitive hunches, (4) the difficulty of determining what it means, and (5) the question of cross-cultural validity.

Content Analysis of Life-History Materials

• Include oral histories of non-illiterate people collected by anthropologists, case histories of mental patients analyzed by psychiatrists, biographies/autobiographies of famous people, and letters, diaries, and other personal documents largely studies by psychologists and sociologists.
• Methods includes (1) selection and definition of content categories chosen, (2) sampling of materials that represent the content categories chosen, (3) quantification or determination of salient categories, and (4) analysis of the quantified or salient categories in relation to other variables.

Wright’s Study on Child-Training Practices and Folktale Aggression

• George O. Wright analyzed 12 folktales for each of 33 societies that were among the sample of 75 societies. Here are some of his findings:

1. The analysis of the folk-tale data supports the essential features of the theory, which was developed to supply insight into the consequences of the outcomes of action and behavior in folk-tales.
2. In general, it is found that high punishment anxiety, when it is connection with the expression of aggression, leads to the kind of folk-tale behavior in which the objects and agents of aggression are far out on the generalization continuum and are least likely the Hero. The hero of folk-tales is not likely to be triumphant in the outcomes.
3. In general, it is found that low punishment anxiety, when it is connected with the expression of aggression, leads to the kind of folk-tale behavior in which the objects of aggression are chosen close to the Hero.

Conclusion of Chapter 7: Each method has its advantages and  disadvantages, and the choice of personality tests depends on the nature and scope of the research and accessibility.