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Objective Personality Testing

Objective Personality Testing. Objective Personality Tests. Material Covered 4 major approaches to test construction Examples of test based on first three test construction procedures Use of personality tests in modern clinical practice. Characteristics Objective Personality Tests.

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Objective Personality Testing

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  1. Objective Personality Testing

  2. Objective Personality Tests Material Covered • 4 major approaches to test construction • Examples of test based on first three test construction procedures • Use of personality tests in modern clinical practice

  3. Characteristics Objective Personality Tests • Standard set of questions • Fixed response options

  4. Objective Personality Tests: Advantages • Individual or groups (economical) • Administration is simple/objective • Scoring is simple/objective • Interpretation of results requires less interpretative skill than projective tests • Apparent increased objectivity and reliability

  5. Objective Personality Tests: Disadvantages • Items limited to behavior • Single overall score • Transparent meaning of items • Forced choice approach

  6. Test Construction Approaches • Logical or content validation • Empirical Criterion Keying (MMPI) • Factor Analysis (NEO Personality Inventory) • Construct Validity (Combines all of the above)

  7. Approaches to Test Construction: Content Validation • Defining all aspects of the construct • Consulting experts about the constructs • Having expert judges assess each potential item • Perform psychometric analyses of items

  8. Content Validation: An Example Goal: Construct a test designed to measure attitudes toward school Answer true or false • I enjoy getting up in the morning for school • I like my teacher(s) • I enjoy seeing my friends at school • I enjoy the subjects I learn about at school

  9. Advantages Face validity with test takers Disadvantages Easy to fake good or bad Content Validation: Advantages and Disadvantages

  10. Content Validation: The Mooney Problem Checklist Assesses emotional functioning in the following areas: • Home and family • Interpersonal relationships • Courtship and marriage • Morals an religion • School/occupation • Economic security • social skills and recreation • Health and physical development

  11. Approaches to Test Construction: Empirical Keying • Create test items to measure on or more traits • Administer test items to a “criterion” and “control” group • Select items that distinguish between these two groups • Content of the item is not considered important

  12. Empirical Keying: Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory (MMPI) • Developed in 1930’s • Starke Hathaway Ph.D. & J. Charnley McKinley, MD. • Needed test to identify diagnosis • Developed an item pool • Identified a group of patients and nonpatients • Resulting scale of 550 items (true/false/cannot say)

  13. MMPI Clinical Scales

  14. MMPI: Validity Scales ? (Cannot say) • Unanswered items L (Lie) • Faking good F (Infrequency) • Faking bad K (Defensiveness) • Defensiveness in admitting to problems

  15. Interpreting MMPI • Validity Scales • Single scales • Profile analysis

  16. MMPI: Shortcomings • Unrepresentative normative sample • Language of items was outdated (including sexist language) • Inadequately addressed difficulties such as suicide or drug use

  17. MMPI: Revision • Assembled team of MMPI experts • Rewrote some items • Added new items • Administered new item pool (n=704) to a standardization sample (representative) • Retained 567 items from the item pool

  18. Anxiety Fears Obsessiveness Depression Health Concerns Bizarre Thoughts Anger Cynicism Antisocial Practices Type A Low Self-Esteem Social Discomfort Family Problems Work Interference Negative Treatment Indicators MMPI-2 Clinical Scales

  19. Approaches to Test Construction: Factor Analysis (Internal Consistency) • Correlational technique used to determine whether a group of items are correlated with one another

  20. Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) • Based on five factor model of personality (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) • Name derived from initials of the first three traits • Assesses all five traits • Emphasizes assessment of normal personality style rather than psychopathology • Parallel forms

  21. Approaches to Test Construction: Construct Validity • Combines aspects of content validity, empirical criterion keying and factor analytic approaches in developing assessment devises (Clark and Watson, 1995)

  22. The Place of Personality Assessment in Contemporary Clinical Psychology Or Why do we use these tests?

  23. Psychological Assessment: Purpose (Textbook Response) • Classification (diagnosis) • Description • Prediction

  24. Classification • Results from psychological testing assists in making a diagnosis • Critics of psych testing- tests are not reliable or valid diagnostic instruments • Defenders: test information is used in conjunction with other clinical data

  25. Description Testing provides a time efficient means of developing a broader understanding of the patient. Dependent Depressed Client Narcissistic Depressed Client

  26. Prediction Test findings can be used to make predictions about behavior • Whether client will benefit from psychotherapy • What type of psychotherapy would be best • Suicidal risk • Risk for violence

  27. The Place of Personality Assessment in Contemporary Clinical Psychology Or Why do we use these tests?

  28. Psychological Assessment: Purpose: Typical Referral Question • Please evaluate for organic brain damage (patient has history of polysubstance abuse) and evaluate for psychotic thinking

  29. Evidence of Organic Damage Weschlser Memory Scale Trail Making Test Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test Benton Test of Visual Memory Evidence of Psychotic Thought MMPI Rorachach Beck Depression Inventory Tests Administered

  30. Interpretation of Results • Normal performance on tests of memory, concentration and attention • Personality testing suggested the primary etiological role of emotional turmoil. • Presence of both acute distress and chronic characterological problems. • Acute distress: severe depression and a risk for suicide • Reality testing in the normal range • Significant ego regression when faced with affective arousal was noted.

  31. Projective and Objective Personality Tests: Incremental Validity • Degree to which assessment increases prediction based on base rates (prevalence) or other sources

  32. Incremental Validity: Current Findings • Tentative support for the incremental validity of the MMPI-2 scales in prediction of personality disorder, aggression, and differentiation between depressed patients and substance abuse patients • NEO-PI-R: personality disorder, maternal responsiveness to infants and violence • Rorschach: thought disorder but not other scores • TAT: not adequately investigated

  33. Objective Tests: Summary Material Covered • 4 major approaches to test construction • Examples of test based on first three test construction procedures • Use of personality tests in modern clinical practice

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