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Personality Assessment Methods: Objective, Projective, and Forensic Approaches, Lecture notes of Psychology

An in-depth exploration of various methods used in personality assessment, including objective methods like hippocrates' classification and the myers-briggs type indicator (mbt), projective methods such as word association tests, sentence completion tests, and role plays, and forensic psychological assessment. The document also discusses the use of these methods in legal proceedings, emotional injury evaluations, custody evaluations, and child abuse and neglect assessments.

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2023/2024

Uploaded on 03/13/2024

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PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT METHODS
(Cyrus)
OBJECTIVE METHOD
The objective methods of
personality assessment contain short
answer items for which the assessee’s task
is to select one response from the two or
more provided. The scoring is done
according to set procedures involving little, if
any, judgment on the part of the scorer. As
with tests of ability, objective methods of
personality assessment may include items
written in a multiple- choice, true–false, or
matching format.
HIPPOCRATES’ CLASSIFICATION OF
PERSONALITY
A personality assessment method by the
Greek physician Hippocrates that classifies
personality into 4 “temperaments”
Sanguine
Choleric
Melancholic
Phlegmati
MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBT)
An introspective self-report questionnaire
indicating differing psychological
preferences in how people perceive the
world and make decisions. It is divided into
4 dichotomies:
Introversion/Extroversion
Intuition/Sensing
Feeling/Thinking
Perceiving/Judgin
Despite its popularity, it has been widely
regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific
community.
MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC
PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI)
The product of a collaboration between
psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and
psychiatrist/neurologist John Charnley
McKinley. It contained 566 true–false items
and was designed as an aid to psychiatric
diagnosis with adolescents and adults (14
years of age and older). The test has 4
validity scales and 10 clinical scales.
4 VALIDITY SCALES:
Lie score (L score)
Frequency/infrequency score (F score)
Correction score (K score)
Cannot say score
10 CLINICAL SCALES:
Hypochondriasis (Hs)
Depression (D)
Hysteria (Hy)
Psychopathic Deviate (Pd)
Masculinity-femininity (Mf)
Paranoia (Pa)
Psychastinia (Pt)
Schizophrenia (Sc)
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PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT METHODS

(Cyrus) OBJECTIVE METHOD The objective methods of personality assessment contain short answer items for which the assessee’s task is to select one response from the two or more provided. The scoring is done according to set procedures involving little, if any, judgment on the part of the scorer. As with tests of ability, objective methods of personality assessment may include items written in a multiple- choice, true–false, or matching format. HIPPOCRATES’ CLASSIFICATION OF PERSONALITY A personality assessment method by the Greek physician Hippocrates that classifies personality into 4 “temperaments”  Sanguine  Choleric  Melancholic  Phlegmati MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR (MBT) An introspective self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. It is divided into 4 dichotomies:  Introversion/Extroversion  Intuition/Sensing  Feeling/Thinking  Perceiving/Judgin Despite its popularity, it has been widely regarded as pseudoscience by the scientific community. MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI) The product of a collaboration between psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and psychiatrist/neurologist John Charnley McKinley. It contained 566 true–false items and was designed as an aid to psychiatric diagnosis with adolescents and adults ( years of age and older). The test has 4 validity scales and 10 clinical scales. 4 VALIDITY SCALES:  Lie score (L score)  Frequency/infrequency score (F score)  Correction score (K score)  Cannot say score 10 CLINICAL SCALES:  Hypochondriasis (Hs)  Depression (D)  Hysteria (Hy)  Psychopathic Deviate (Pd)  Masculinity-femininity (Mf)  Paranoia (Pa)  Psychastinia (Pt)  Schizophrenia (Sc)

 Hypomania (Ma)  Social Introversion (Si) PROJECTIVE METHODS The projective hypothesis holds 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. In like manner, we may define the projective method as a technique of personality assessment in which some judgment of the assessee’s personality is made on the basis of performance on a task that involves supplying some sort of structure to unstructured or incomplete stimuli. Unlike self-report methods, projective tests are indirect methods of personality assessment. The examinee’s task may be to talk about something or someone other than herself or himself, and inferences about the examinee’s personality are made from the response. In the words of the man who coined the term projective methods, “the most important things about an individual are what he cannot or will not say”.

INKBLOTS AS PROJECTIVE STIMULI

Hermann Rorschach developed what he called a “Form Interpretation Test” using inkblots as the forms to be interpreted. In 1921 he published his monograph on the technique, Psychodiagnostics. In the last section of that monograph, Rorschach proposed applications of his test to personality assessment. He provided 28 case studies employing normal (well, undiagnosed) subjects and people with various psychiatric diagnoses (including neurosis, psychosis, and manic-depressive illness) to illustrate his test. The Rorschach Inkblot Test consists of ten bilaterally symmetrical (that is, mirror-imaged if folded in half) inkblots printed on separate cards. Five inkblots are achromatic (meaning without color, or black-and-white). Two inkblots are black, white, and red. The remaining three inkblots are multicolored. PICTURES AS PROJECTIVE STIMULI The Thematic Apperception Test was originally designed as an aid to eliciting fantasy material from patients in psychoanalysis (Morgan & Murray, 1935). The stimulus materials consisted, as they do today, of 31 cards, one of which is blank. The

SENTENCE COMPLETION TESTS

Other projective techniques that use verbal material as projective stimuli are sentence completion tests. How might you complete the following sentences? Sentence completion tests may contain items that, like those listed here, are quite general and appropriate for administration in a wide variety of settings. Alternatively, sentence completion stems (the first part of the item) may be developed for use in specific types of settings (such as school or business) or for specific purposes. Sentence completion tests may be relatively atheoretical or linked very closely to some theory. SOUNDS AS PROJECTIVE STIMULI Auditory Apperception Test (Stone, 1950), is an auditory projective test in which the subject’s task was to respond by creating a story based on three sounds played on a phonograph record. Rutherford (2003) speculated that a combination of factors conspired to cause the demise of auditory projective methods. The tests proved not to differentiate between different groups of subjects who took it. Responses to the auditory stimuli lacked the complexity and richness of responses to inkblots, pictures, and other projective stimuli. None of the available scoring systems was very satisfactory. PRODUCTION OF FIGURE DRAWINGS FIGURE DRAWING TEST A relatively quick, easily administered projective technique is the analysis of drawings. Drawings can provide the psycho- diagnostician with a wealth of clinical hypotheses to be confirmed or discarded as the result of other findings. The use of drawings in clinical and research settings has extended beyond the area of personality assessment. Attempts have been made to use artistic productions as a source of information about intelligence, neurological intactness, visual-motor coordination, cognitive development, and even learning disabilities (Neale & Rosal, 1993).

BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT METHODS

The emphasis in behavioral assessment is on “what a person does in situations rather than on inferences about what attributes he has more globally”. Predicting what a person will do is thought to entail an understanding of the assessee with respect to both antecedent conditions and consequences of a particular situation (Smith & Iwata, 1997). APPROACHES TO BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION AND RATING SCALE Behavioral observation may take many forms. The observer may, in the tradition of the naturalist, record a running narrative of events using tools such as pencil and paper, a video, film, or still camera, or a cassette recorder. Another form of behavioral observation employs what is called a behavior rating scale —a preprinted sheet on which the observer notes the presence or intensity of targeted behaviors, usually by checking boxes or filling in coded terms. Shapiro and Skinner (1990) distinguished between two categories of the scale :  broad-band instruments, designed to measure a wide variety of behaviors; and  narrow-band instruments , which may focus on behaviors related to single, specific constructs such as hyperactivity, shyness, or depression. SELF MONITORING Self-monitoring may be defined as the act of systematically observing and recording aspects of one’s own behavior and/or events related to that behavior. Self- monitoring may be used to record specific thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. The utility of self-monitoring depends in large part on the competence, diligence, and motivation of the assessee, although a number of ingenious methods have been devised to assist in the process or to ensure compliance. For example, handheld computers have been programmed to beep as a cue to observe and record behavior. Psychometric issues also must be considered, including the potential problem of reactivity. Reactivity refers to the possible changes in an assesses behavior, thinking, or performance that may arise in response to being observed, assessed, or evaluated. ANALOGUE STUDIES An analogue study is a research investigation in which one or more variables are similar or analogous to the real variable that the investigator wishes to

behavior will then be elicited in a naturalistic situation (Kern et al., 1983; Kolotkin & Wielkiewicz, 1984). Special Applications of Clinical Measures CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT (Shiena) The Assessment of Addiction and Substance Abuse ● Exploration of personal history with drugs and alcohol may be accomplished by means of questionnaires or face-to-face interviews. ● The MMPI-2-RF, contains three scales that provide information about substance abuse potential. The oldest of these three scales is the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MacAndrew, 1965), since revised and usually referred to simply as the MAC-R. This scale was originally constructed to aid in differentiating alcoholic from nonalcoholic psychiatric patients. ● Recovery from drug addiction has itself been conceptualized as a socially mediated process of reacculturation that can result in a new sense of identity. NOTE : Reacculturation - The process by which a person joins an unfamiliar social group by learning its language, customs, and social processes. Forensic Psychological Assessment The word forensic means “pertaining to or employed in legal proceedings,” and the term forensic psychological assessment can be defined broadly as the theory and application of psychological evaluation and measurement in a legal context. ● Testamentary capacity (capacity to make a last will and testament) of a person before death ● Mens rea, or guilty mind ● Forensic assessment in charge whether a person is competent to stand trial, is criminally responsible, or is ready for parole. 01 Dangerousness to oneself or others The duty extends to protecting suicidal people, who are presumed to be suffering from mental disorder, from acting on self- destructive impulses. If the assessor determines that a homicide is imminent, the assessor has a legal duty to warn the endangered third party—a duty that overrides the privileged communication between psychologist and client. 02 Competency One may speak, for example, of competence to make a will, enter into a contract, commit a crime, waive constitutional rights, consent to medical treatment... the list goes on.

03 Competence to stand trial a defendant’s ability to understand the charges against him and assist in his own defense. As stated in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dusky v. United States, a defendant must have “sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational and factual understanding of the proceedings against him.” The Competency Screening Test (Lipsitt et al., 1971) is a 22-item instrument written in a sentence completion format. The defendant’s competency is clinically evaluated by the quality of responses to sentence stems such as “If the jury finds me guilty, I _____.” —Someone Famous 04 Criminal responsibility M’Naghten standard referred to as the right or wrong test Durham standard “if his unlawful act was the product of a mental disease or defect” ALI standard A person is not responsible for criminal conduct, or, is insane if, at the time of such conduct, as a result of a mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) of his conduct, or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Psychologist Richard Rogers and his colleagues developed the Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scale RCRAS, a systematic and empirical approach to insanity evaluations. This instrument consists of 25 items tapping both psychological and situational variables. The items are scored with respect to five scales: reliability (including malingering), organic factors, psychopathology, cognitive control, and behavioral control. After scoring, the examiner employs a hierarchical decision model to arrive at a decision concerning the assessee’s sanity. 05 Readiness for parole or probation A classic work by Hervey Cleckley (1976; originally published in 1941) entitled The Mask of Sanity provided a detailed profile of 15 prototypical psychopaths. Generally speaking, psychopaths are people with few inhibitions who may pursue pleasure or money with callous disregard for the welfare of others. Robert D. Hare (1980) developed a 22-item Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) that reflects personality characteristics as rated by the assessor (such as callousness, impulsiveness, and empathy) and “criminal versatility”. Diagnosis and evaluation of emotional injury 1. Emotional injury

drawings, and the use of projective techniques such as the TAT and related tests. Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse and Neglect Forms

  1. The infliction or allowing of infliction of physical injury or emotional impairment that is nonaccidental,
  2. the creation or allowing the creation of substantial risk of physical injury or emotional impairment that is nonaccidental, or
  3. the committing or allowing of a sexual offense to be committed against a child. Typical definitions of neglect refer to a failure on the part of an adult responsible for the care of a child to exercise a minimum degree of care in providing the child with food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, and supervision Child Abuse and Neglect One technique involves observing children while they play with anatomically detailed dolls (ADDs), which are dolls with accurately represented genitalia. Human-figure drawings are also used to assess sexual and physical abuse, though their accuracy in distinguishing abused from nonabused children is a subject of debate Risk assessment - to prevent child abuse Test developers - sought to create instruments useful in identifying parents and others who may be at risk for abusing children. Parenting Stress Index (PSI), measures stress associated with the parental role. Parents are asked to reflect on their relationship with one child at a time. What is Child Abuse - It is any form of maltreatment by an adult, which is violent or threatening for the child. This includes neglect. Elder Abuse and Neglect also known as elder mistreatment. Elder abuse may be defined as the intentional affliction of physical, emotional, financial, or other harm on an older individual who meets the statutory age requirement for an elder. Elder neglect refers to a failure on the part of a caregiver or service provider to provide for the elder (as defined by statute) what was reasonably needed to prevent physical, emotional, financial, or other harm.

A newer instrument that has shown promise for work in Adult Protective Services is called the TRIO (an acronym for the Tool for Risk, Interventions, and Outcomes). Sommerfeld et al. (2014) described the development of the TRIO, as well as psychometric research related to this test’s reliability, validity, and field utility. Suicide Assessment

  • Some 800,000 people annually who die by their own hand (World Health Organization, 2014), there are in many instances tell-tale signs—some more direct than others—that signal suicidal ideation or an impending suicidal gesture or attempt. (3) Three of these signs include:
  1. Talking about committing suicide. It is a myth that “people who actually commit suicide just do it and don’t talk about it.”
  2. Making reference to a plan for committing suicide.
  3. One or more past suicide attempts. Unfortunately, the saying “If you don’t succeed at first, try, try again” applies to many people who eventually “succeed” at taking their own life. Higher risk to commit suicide Borderline personality disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol abuse

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

(Harlene) Neurology

  • branch of medicine that focuses on the nervous system and its disorder Neuropsychology
  • branch of psychology that focuses on the relationship between brain functioning and behavior Neuropsychological Assessment
  • may be defined as the evaluation of brain and nervous system functioning as it relates to behavior. Subspecialty areas within neuropsychology include pediatric neuropsychology, geriatric neuropsychology, forensic neuropsychology, and school neuropsychology Neurotology
  • branch of medicine that focuses on problems related to hearing, balance, and facial nerves. THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND BEHAVIOR The nervous system is composed of various kinds of neurons and can be divided into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Contralateral control

superficial, and probably did not take all that long. The examination by the specialist was more complex, and probably took a bit of time. We might characterize the examination of the general practitioner as one designed to screen for problems, whereas the specialist’s examination was clearly more diagnostic in nature, and better equipped to understand the precise location of any abnormality, as well as any disease process. In fact, any problems discovered by the general practitioner during a routine screening will surely result in a referral to a specialist for further evaluation. The signs signaling that a more thorough neuropsychological or neurological workup by a specialist is advisable are characterized as being “hard” or “soft” Hard sign may be defined as an indicator of definite neurological deficit. Abnormal reflex performance is an example of a hard sign. Cranial nerve damage as indicated by neuroimaging is another example of a hard sign. Soft sign is an indicator that is merely suggestive of neurological deficit. One example of a soft sign is an apparent inability to accurately copy a stimulus figure when attempting to draw it. The Physical Examination

  • Most neuropsychologists perform some kind of physical examination on patients, but the extent of this examination varies widely as a function of the expertise, competence, and confidence of the examiner Noninvasive procedures -procedures that do not involve any intrusion into the examinee’s body
  • In addition to making observations about the examinee’s appearance, the examiner may also physically examine the scalp and skull for any unusual enlargements or depressions. Muscles may be inspected for their tone (soft? rigid?), strength (weak or tired?), and size relative to other muscles. Sample Tests Used to Evaluate Muscle Coordination  Standing still  Nose-finger-nose  Finger wiggle Neuropsychological Tests
  • tests used by neuropsychologists as well as others who are charged with finding answers to neuropsychology-related referral questions. Tests of General Intellectual Ability
  • Tests of intellectual ability, particularly Wechsler tests, occupy a prominent position

among the diagnostic tools available to the neuropsychologist. The varied nature of the tasks on the Wechsler scales and the wide variety of responses required make these tests potentially very useful tools for neuropsychological screening. Pattern analysis

  • the examiner looks beyond performance on individual tests to a study of the pattern of test scores Tests to Measure the Ability to Abstract
  • One symptom commonly associated with neuropsychological deficit, regardless of the site or exact cause of the problem, is inability or lessened ability to think abstractly.
  • One traditional measure of verbal abstraction ability has been the Wechsler Similarities subtest. The task in this subtest is to identify how two objects (for instance, a ball and an orange) are alike. A stitch in time saves nine. Object Sorting Test and the Color-Form Sorting Test (also known as Weigl’s Test)
  • require testtakers to sort objects of different shapes and colors Executive function Tests of Executive Function
  • defined as organizing, planning, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition of impulses and related activities associated with the frontal and prefrontal lobes of the brain Trail Making Test A Field-of-search Item Confrontation Naming

Tests of Verbal Functioning Verbal fluency and fluency in writing are sometimes affected by injury to the brain, and there are tests to assess the extent of the deficit in such skills. Controlled Word Association Test

  • the examiner says a letter of the alphabet and then it is the subject’s task to say as many words as he or she can think of that begin with that letter Tests of Memory Procedural memory
  • the process of retrieving information necessary to perform learned skills
  • things like driving a car, making entries on a keyboard, or riding a bicycle. Declarative memory
  • memory that involves conscious recollection of particular facts and events. 2 Components of Declarative memory Episodic memory
  • is memory for facts in a particular context or situation. Semantic memory
  • is strictly speaking, memory for facts.
  • specific facts or concepts that have been learned TESTS OF MEMORY Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-IV)
  • provides index scores for Auditory Memory, Visual Memory, Visual Working Memory, immediate Memory, and Delayed Memory OTHER TOOLS OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT fMRI
  • apparatus creates real-time moving images of internal functioning, and is particularly useful in identifying which parts of the brain are active at various times and during various tasks

Cerebral Angiogram

  • tracer element is injected into the bloodstream before the cerebral area is X- rayed PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Scan
  • is a tool of nuclear medicine particularly useful in diagnosing biochemical lesions in the brain. SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography)
  • a technology that records the course of a radioactive tracer fluid (iodine) and produces exceptionally clear photographs of organs and tissues Electroencephalograph (EEG)
  • machine that measures the electrical activity of the brain by means of electrodes pasted to the scalp