Personality Assessment
Defining Personality. According to Cohen et al., :
Personality is an inidividual’s unique constellation of psychological traits and states.
A trait is any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another. [long term individual differences]
States are transitory exhibitions of traits. [short term individual differences]
Examples of traits (& states)
Honesty (Consientious)
Curiosity (Openness)
Sociability (Extraversion)
Worried (Neuroticism)
Critical (Agreeableness)
Assessing Personality
Response consistency (this is what to look for)
Typical, as opposed to maximum, response (to distinguish from abilities)
Methods of Developing (Obective) Personality Measures
Logical Test Construction
Content or rational approach. Sample items that make sense on the face of it. How about items for an honesty test?
Mooney problem Checklist
Factor Analysis
Use factor analysis to boil down large numbers of items or contents into a smaller number of underlying factors based on empirical relations (correlations) among the content as determined by responses to the items.
16PF
NEO
Emprical Criterion Keying
MMPI
SVIB
Theortical Approach
EPPS (Murray’s needs)
Myers-Briggs (Jung’s typology)