Psychological Assessment Methods Quiz

Arts Degree Advice Session

• Event: Advice session on options after a BA in Arts degree
• Date: Wednesday, September 14th
• Time: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
• Location: O'hEocha Theatre, AMB-1021
• Registration: Careers Connect

Research Methods in Personality

• Topic: Data and Design in Personality Research

Psychology's Emphasis on Method

• Goal of research: Continuously improve on tentative answers to questions.
• Emphasis: Thinking and seeking new knowledge.
• Research: Exploration of the unknown.
• Requirement: Gathering data.

Measuring Personality

• Psychological Triad: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
• Personality Measures: No perfect measures exist.
• Observation: Personality is inferred from observable aspects.

Sources of Information

• S Data: Self-report (thoughts, feelings, etc.)
• I Data: Informant data (e.g., parent, partner, friend, teacher).
• L Data: Life outcomes (e.g., marriage, employment).
• B Data: Behavioural observations (in lab and real-world contexts).

Self-reports (S Data)

• Format: Open-ended questions or surveys/questionnaires.
• Validity: High face validity.

Ratings by Others (I Data)

• Source: Direct report by observer or peer ratings.

Advantages of S Data

• Information: Large amount of information available.
• Expertise: People's own best experts regarding themselves.
• Accuracy: Access to thoughts, feelings, intentions, and behaviours.
• Truth: Definitional truth (opinions of self).
• Causality: Causal force (self-efficacy, self-verification).
• Simplicity: Easy to collect.

Disadvantages of S Data

• Bias: Overly positive or negative, desire for privacy, faking.
• Error: Fish-and-water effect, active distortion of memory, lack of self-insight, carelessness.
• Simplicity: Too simple or too easy.

Advantages of I Data

• Information: A large amount of information based on many situations and multiple informants.
• Real-world Perspective: Judgments are from real-world situations.
• Relevance: More likely to be relevant to important outcomes.
• Context: Common sense, taking context into account.
• Truth: Definitional truth (judgments of others).
• Causality: Causal force (reputation/expectations).

Disadvantages of I Data

• Information: Limited behavioural information.
• Privacy: Lack of access to private experience.
• Memory of Events: Error- prone; more likely to remember extreme, unusual, or emotionally arousing behaviours.
• Bias: Letter of recommendation, prejudices and stereotypes.

Discussion

• S Data: Discuss aspects of personality that people are likely/unlikely to accurately/honestly report.
• I Data: Discuss the perspective of best friends, co-workers, and parents regarding personality.

Life Outcomes (L) Data

• Source: Archival records or self-report.
• Nature: Results (residue) of personality.

Advantages and Disadvantages of L Data

• Advantages: Objective, verifiable, intrinsic importance, and psychological relevance.
• Disadvantage: Multidetermination (multiple causes for an outcome).

B-Data: Naturalistic Observation

• Environment: Naturalistic settings.
• Approaches: Observations, social media, hybrid approaches (e.g., self-reported observations in naturalistic settings).
• Methods: Experience sampling, diary studies, ambulatory assessment, ecological momentary assessment.

B-Data: Laboratory B Data

• Type: Experiments
• Behaviors: Record behaviour in situations, examine reactions, represent real-life contexts, physiological measures

Advantages and Disadvantages of Laboratory B Data

• Advantages: Range of contexts, appearance of objectivity.
• Disadvantages: Difficult to conduct experiments, expensive, uncertain interpretation.

Research Design

• Topic: Different methods of research

Case Study

• Method: Closely studying a particular event or person within real-life context.
• Application: Generating new ideas/hypotheses testable by different methods.

Correlational Research

• Nature: Looks at the relationship between variables.
• Emphasis: Variability, correlation, individual differences.
• Importance: Variances and covariances are important.
• Purpose: Describes how people differ and relate differences.
• Caution: Correlation does not equal causation.

Experimental Research

• Conditions: Under controlled conditions, an independent variable (IV) is manipulated, and its impact on a dependent variable (DV) is observed.
• Emphasis: Central tendencies, not variation.
• Purpose: Differences in means reflect direct causal effects.
• Limitations: Personality traits cannot be manipulated.
• Methods: Employ quasi-experiments.

Experimental Research (Diagram)

• Diagram: Shows different variables and relationships.

Experimental Research (Example)

• Example Table: Shows person variable, experimental variable, hypothesised state variable, and observed variable

Correlational & Experimental Research

• Relationship between variables: Both methods attempt to assess relationship between variables.
• Measurement: Limited by the quality of the measurement (validity and reliability).
• Method Differences: Experimental method manipulates presumed causal variable, correlational method measures.

Correlational & Experimental Research (Complications)

• Causality: Only experiments assess causality.
• Direction: Difficulty knowing causal direction.
• Third Variable: Third-variable problem, unknown direction of cause, unrealistic experimental manipulation.
• Practical issues: Uncertainty about manipulation, creating unlikely conditions, ethical issues of deception.

Personality Assessment

• Objective: Treatment planning, ethical standards, insurance reimbursement in the USA
• Process: Summarising a cluster of behaviours to describe a client.

Personality Tests

• Types: Omnibus inventories, one-trait measures.
• Data Type: Mostly S data; some tests include B data.
• Examples: MMPI, CPI, 16PF, NEO-PI, SVIB, HPI, IQ tests.

Assessment Issues

• Validity: Indicates whether a test measures what it is supposed to measure. Types: construct, criterion (predictive or concurrent), divergent, convergent, face.
• Reliability: Concerns consistency of the measure; Types: test-retest, parallel-forms, internal (e.g., Cronbach's alpha).
• Challenges: Memory bias, motivational bias, response sets (e.g., acquiescence, nay saying, social desirability).

MMPI: Validity Scales

• Validity Scales: L-scale (lie), F-scale (faking good/bad), K-scale (defensiveness), ?–scale (unanswered) TRIN, VRIN, Fb, and FS.

Reliability and Validity

• Relationship: Validity necessitates reliability (but not vice versa).
• Measurement Concerns: Reliability is about the consistency of results; validity concerns what the measures measure and how well it does so.

Personality Assessment (Types)

• Objective Tests: Specific questions (yes/no, true/false).
• Projective Tests: Undefined stimuli; interpretation dependent on personality.

Constructing Personality Tests

• Rational Method: Asking rationally related questions to the construct.
• Factor Analysis: Gathering lots of data; grouping into groupings.
• Empirical Method: Gathering lots of items; separating into groups based on the differences in answers.

When Different Methods are Used

• Rational: Theory building.
• Empirical: Practical needs (e.g., vocational interests).

Methods of Objective Test Construction

• Rational: Four conditions for validity (same meaning to taker/creator, accurate self-assessment, willingness to report accurately, and items reflect the construct).
• Factor Analytic: List of items, analyse; items grouped together have something in common and named.
• Empirical: Gather lots of items, test on pre-formed/divided groups to compare the answers of groups. Cross-validate.

Projective Assessments

• Stimuli: undefined
• Interpretation: Everyone interprets differently based on personality.
• Assessment Type: Structured interview (not a tes).

Projective Assessment Types

• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Write story based on image.
• Draw-A-Person test: Draw a person and interpret.
• Rorschach Inkblot test: Respond to inkblots.

Projective Methods

• Use: Mostly clinical psychology (B data).
• Concepts: Linked to unconscious mind/Freud.
• Types: Word Association tests and Sentence Completion tests.

Why are projective tests frequently used?

• Advantages: Good for breaking the ice, clinicians gather information not captured by more controlled measures. Some evidence of validity by Rorschach. Used by 82% of clinical psychologists, among the top 4 tests.
• Disadvantages: Scarce validity evidence, expensive, time-consuming, difficult to interpret accurately, sometimes used inappropriately.

Facebook Likes and Personality

• Research Analysis: Facebook likes accurately predict personality traits (especially openness and extraversion), and also intelligence, race, religion, sexual orientation, and political orientation.
• Method: Evaluated Facebook profiles of 58,000 participants, and related to psychometric results.
• Variables: Age, gender, relationship status, political views, religion, number of friends, alcohol/drug use, and parents' marital status and ethnicity.