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Subject PSYCHOLOGY
Paper No and Title Paper No 5: Personality Theories
Module No and Title Module No. 38: Introduction to Personality Assessment
Module Tag PSY_P5_M38
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Learning Outcomes
2. Personality assessment
3. Sources of data in personality assessment
3.1. Interviews
3.2. Objective Self Report Techniques
3.3. Projective Techniques
3.4. Behavioral Techniques
3.5. Psycho-physiological Techniques
4. Ethical issues in personality assessment
4.1. Personal concerns: protecting the rights of the individual
4.2 Legal concerns: assessment and the law
4.3 Social concerns: assessment and society
5. Summary
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 5 : Personality Theories
MODULE 38 : Introduction to personality assessment: sources of
data in personality assessment, issues
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you shall be able to
Understand the nature of personality assessment.
Learn about different sources of personality assessment
Learn about ethical issues in personality assessment
2. Personality Assessment
Personality assessment may be defined as the measurement and evaluation of psychological traits,
interests, attitudes, cognitive and behavioral styles, and/or related individual characteristics. It
consists of procedures for identifying similarities and differences among people in their personal
characteristics and capacities. It plays an important role in psychological science and practice.
Measures of personality characteristics help researchers examine individual differences in
response style, unravel the origins of distinctive behavior patterns, and map developmental paths
to diverse types of life adaptation. It also helps practitioners discern the individual’s frame of
mind and behavioral tendencies. They can use this information to reach relevant conclusions and
make useful recommendations in a broad range of healthcare, forensic, educational and
organizational applications.
Personality assessment in healthcare settings can be helpful in identifying psychological aspects
of physical illness, monitoring adaptation to chronic illness or disability, estimating tolerance for
surgical procedures and revealing the sources of an unhealthy lifestyle or poor compliance with
prescribed treatment. In forensic settings, personality test indications of mental impairment can
contribute in criminal cases to determinations of competence and sanity. In educational settings
we can identify the need to provide counseling or special education services for students with
conduct or learning problems with the help of result of personality assessment. In organizational
settings, personality assessment can prove useful in evaluating candidates for employment or
promotion, and test findings can help determine the fitness for duty of persons who have become
psychologically impaired.
3. Sources of data in personality assessment
The personality characteristics that define the nature and dispositions of an individual can be
assessed in several ways:
3.1.Interview
Interview is the core of any psychological assessment. The interview is focused on assessing the
status of a particular individual. Researchers can ask different types of questions, which in turn
generate different types of data. For example, closed questions provide people with a fixed set of
responses, whereas open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words.
Sometimes researchers use an interview schedule. This is a set of prepared questions designed to
be asked exactly as worded. Interviews schedules have a standardized format which means the
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 5 : Personality Theories
MODULE 38 : Introduction to personality assessment: sources of
data in personality assessment, issues
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
same questions are asked to each interviewee in same order
(McLeod, 2014). Interviews can be of several forms:
3.1.1. Structured Interview: This is also known as a formal interview (like a job interview).
The questions are asked in a set / standardized order and the interviewer will not deviate from
the interview schedule or probe beyond the answers received (so they are not flexible). These
are based on structured, closed-ended questions (McLeod, 2014).
3.1.2. Unstructured Interview: These are sometimes referred to as ‘Discovery Interviews’ &
are more like a ‘Guided Conservation’ than a strict structured interview. An interview
schedule might not be used, and even if one is used, they will contain open-ended questions
that can be asked in any order. Some questions might be added / missed as the Interview
progresses (McLeod, 2014).
3.1.3. Clinical Interview:
OUTLIINE FOR A CLINICAL
INTERVIEW
1. Identifying Information
2. Presenting Complaints
3. History of Present Illness
4. Past Medical and
Psychiatric History
5. Past Personal History
6. Family History
7. Pre-morbid Personality
8. Level of Insight and
Motivation
9. Collateral History
Identifying information: This information typically includes basic demographic data such as
name, gender, age, race, marital status. It is helpful to have this type information when the
interview begins as it helps to guide the interview process as it progresses.
Presenting complaints: This is the detailed account of the patient's central problem that led the
patient to seek treatment. This is usually elicited by fairly standard questions such as “what brings
you here today”.
History of present illness: This is a description of the current complaints that the person has. This
requires detailed elaboration often using the persons own words and supported by a relevant
functional enquiry. It includes nature of problem, onset, progression, maintaining - precipitating
factors, associated symptoms.
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 5 : Personality Theories
MODULE 38 : Introduction to personality assessment: sources of
data in personality assessment, issues
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Past medical and psychiatric history: Obtaining a medical
history is necessary regardless of the problems patient presents.
This includes enquiry about past or current physical/psychiatric illness, time for which problem
persisted and any hospitalizations required.
Past personal history: This consists of the person’s prenatal history, attaining developmental
milestones, educational history – it gives a lot if information about personality and intelligence,
problems faced during adolescence, employment history – chronologically listing patient’s job,
durations and reasons for leaving the job and the marital history. Finally one should also cover
the past and present use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.
Family history: understanding a person’s problem requires the understanding of the person’s
family. Drawing a genogram is the clearest way to present the family. Important information
includes number of family members, their age, and family history of major illness.
Pre-morbid personality: In this segment one tries to understand what the person was like before
they became unwell.
Level of insight and motivation: This refers to the awareness of the patient about his problem and
motivation to change. It also takes into account the patient’s willingness to accept therapy and his
expectations.
Collateral history: A history from someone such as family and friends who knows the patient
well is collected and particularly useful when the person can’t or won’t talk. Other people may be
better placed than the patient to declare whether behavior or personality has changed.
3.1.4 Evaluation of interview technique
Interview methods are very useful and have various advantages. Firstly, standardization of
interview format tends to increase the reliability of the information gathered. Unstructured
interviews are more flexible as questions can be adapted and changed depending on the
respondents’ answers. Also unstructured interviews generate qualitative data through the use of
open questions. This allows the respondent to talk in some depth, choosing their own words. This
helps the researcher develop a real sense of a person’s understanding of a situation. They also
have increased validity because it gives the interviewer the opportunity to probe for a deeper
understanding, ask for clarification & allow the interviewee to steer the direction of the interview
(McLeod, 2014).
However, there are certain demerits of using this method – they can be time consuming.
Erroneous conclusions may be drawn from face-to-face encounters due to the complication of the
interview situation, the attitudes, fears, and expectations of the interviewee, and the interviewer’s
manner and training. Research has been conducted to identify, control, and, if possible, eliminate
these sources of interview invalidity and unreliability. By conducting more than one interview
with the same interviewee and by using more than one interviewer to evaluate the subject’s
behavior, light can be shed on the reliability of the information derived and may reveal
differences in influence among individual interviewers.
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER 5 : Personality Theories
MODULE 38 : Introduction to personality assessment: sources of
data in personality assessment, issues
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