Personality Psychology- Chapter 5

- mostly S data- some provide B data- i.e. MMPI, Implicit association test, intellegence

They measure a wide range of traits

projective tests- a test that presents a person with an ambiguous stimulus & asks him or her to describe what is seen e.g. roschach inkblot test, draw a person test, thematic apperception testobjective tests- a personality test that consists of a list of questions to be answered by the subject as true or false, or on a numeric scale

advantages- good tool for breaking the ice- skilled clinicians may be able to get info not captured in other types of testsdisadvantages- expensive & time-consuming - a psychologist cant be sure about what they mean- other less expensive tests work as good or better

They provide B data

- the principle of aggregation (use similar questions to average them and get a more reliable score)-uses spearman-brown formula to calculate reliability

-the rational method: write items that seem directly, obviously & rationally related to what is being measured-the factor analytic method: identify which items group together by using the statistical technique of factor analysis-the empirical method: identify items based on how people in pre-identified groups respond

Jacksons Personality Research form (PRF)

-its important to know how the test will be used-helping people (schools, career counselors, clinicians) -assessment for selection or retention (employers, CIA, military)

-tests are unfair mechanisms for controlling people-traits do not matter until & unless they are tested & are social constructions-being described by a set scores is undignified & humiliating

-fields may not evolve-increases difficulty of women & minorities joining nontraditional fields

Honest people have to decide whether to lie to get a high score; dishonest people don't have this dilemma