personality disorders, Lecture notes of Personality Psychology

Download personality disorders and more Lecture notes Personality Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Understanding Personality and personality assessment • Personality: An individual’s unique constellation of psychological traits that is relatively stable over time • Personality assessment: The measurement and evaluation of psychological traits, states, values, interests, attitudes, worldview, acculturation, sense of humor, cognitive and behavioral styles, and/or related individual characteristics • The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is frequently discussed in terms of the patterns of scores that emerge and these patterns are referred to as a profile • Personality profile: A narrative description of the extent to which a person has demonstrated certain personality traits, states, or types • Personality state - The transitory exhibition of some personality trait, a relatively temporary predisposition. They are short term ,concrete patterns of acting ,feeling and thinking. • Personality trait-behaviors and feelings that are consistent and long lasting. Personality Assessment: Some Basic Questions • Why assess personality? • Aspects of personality could be explored in: • Identifying determinants of knowledge about health • Categorizing different types of commitment in intimate relationships • Determining peer response to a team’s weakest link • Identifying those prone to terrorism in the service of national defense • Tracking trait development over time • Studying some uniquely human characteristic such as moral judgment • Who is being assessed and who is assessing? • Some methods of personality assessment rely on the assessee’s own self-report • Assessee’s may respond to interview questions and answer questionnaires in writing or on a computer. • Some forms of personality assessment rely on informants such as parents, teachers, or peers. What is assessed when a personality assessment is conducted? • Some tests are designed to measure particular traits (e.g., introversion) or states (e.g., test anxiety) • Other tests focus on descriptions of behavior, usually in particular contexts What is assessed when a personality assessment is conducted? • Response style: A tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of the item or question. • Impression management: The attempt to manipulate others’ impressions through “the selective exposure of some information…coupled with suppression of [other] information” (Braginsky et al., 1969, p. 51). • Response styles can affect the validity of the outcome and can be countered through the use of a validity scale. • Validity scale: A subscale of a test designed to assist in judgments regarding how honestly the test-taker responded and whether responses were products of response style, carelessness, deception, or misunderstanding. Where are personality assessments conducted? • Traditional sites include schools, clinics, hospitals, academic research laboratories, employment counseling, vocational selection centers, and the offices of psychologists and counselors. • Personality assessors can also be found observing behavior and making assessments in natural settings. Projective Measures • Projective hypothesis: The idea that an individual supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual’s own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding • Projective techniques are indirect methods of personality assessment Inkblots as Projective Stimuli • Rorschach inkblots • Hermann Rorschach • There is debate on how to precisely classify Rorschach inkblots • Consist of 10 bilaterally symmetrical inkblots on separate cards, half of which are achromatic • Inkblot cards are initially presented in order from 1 to 10; the test-takers are asked to interpret the inkblot and are provided a great deal of freedom • After the entire set of inkblots has been administered, an inquiry is conducted and the assessor attempts to determine what features of the inkblot played a role in formulating the test-taker’s percept. • A third component, testing the limits, may also be included to enable the examiner to restructure the situation by asking specific questions concerning personality functioning • Hypotheses concerning personality functioning are formed on the basis of variables such as content and location of the response and the time taken to respond. • Rorschach protocols are scored according to several categories, including location, determinants, content, popularity, and form. • Patterns of response, recurring themes, and interrelationships among the different categories are all considered in the final description. • John E. Exner Jr. developed a comprehensive system for the administration, scoring, and interpretation of Rorschach tests • Exner’s system brought uniformity to Rorschach use, but despite such improvements the psychometric properties of the tool are still debated • Test-retest reliability is of little value to the Rorschach test because of the very nature of the measurement; inter-scorer reliability may be more appropriate • Interpretive systems incorporate or are based on Henry Murray's concepts of: • Need: Determinants of behavior arising from within the individual • Press: Determinants of behavior arising from within the environment • Thema: Unit of interaction between needs and press Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Picture 1: r A boy is sitting and looking at a Tanpura placed in front of him. Tat Personality characteristics * As per description of the subject following traits may be traced — Creativity — Imagination ability • Sentence completion test: Presentation of a list of words that begin a sentence • Assessee’s task is to respond by finishing each sentence with whatever words come to mind • May be relatively a-theoretical or linked closely to some theory • Sentence completion stems may be developed for use in specific settings or for specific purposes Sentence Completion Test - Child nnn Cre Crmy sor. pein IST Pease compinie Feet eerences 1 Ua ould be tet bbher lat fret me SO MNERN.+ 2 Wes |igeowup tem De tile ve fet ok yest right stones OF ey brother 4. Moet chiro dud get tracked Ue ve é 8 igetonay when hinges dont werk out just as T want. # tinnmy tence Hey Sheald. soe being mean eo me . ee et c Lary dbegt Aus bakes, © 1am Somedones “ed @. Witeen Nock a cee boy warat pinta me has lean a mpm 1 eat —tunluaky 10 ante _Qutid disappoint mene av 11 Teschemcan Ue Gate a 12 Ween ime tons 7 Fae fhe boss “of the family, ; 4 tembawten To _trig_ ip make friends. — SU Ret Paseseey tion others Stag bothering i 8 scrote alot @ mule fe ie, 17. wien te somecre we. Wioceld he someon? never teased. muytented £5 Someone, a let prettier than me. 10. Vike to go 7 plades tihere pecele are Aine, to mé. Production of Figure Drawings • Figure drawing test: Assessee produces a drawing that is analyzed on the basis of its content and related variables • Characteristics of the drawing and the individual drawn are evaluated in Draw a Person (DAP) test • House-Tree-Person test – Test-taker’s task is to draw a picture of a house, a tree, and a person • Kinetic Family Drawing (KFD) – Helps learn about the examinee in relation to his/her family Projective Methods - Assumptions and Criticisms • Assumptions • More ambiguous the stimuli, the more subjects reveal about their personality • Projective stimuli evoke responses that are idiosyncratic in nature • Ambiguous nature of a task and its results are less subject to faking. Criticisms • Projective stimulus is only one aspect of the total stimulus situation • Stimulus material may not be as ambiguous and amenable to projection • Some assumptions are cherished beliefs accepted without the support of research validation THANK YOU