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Chapter 10: Personality Assessment and Behavioral Assessment (250)…
Chapter 10: Personality Assessment and Behavioral Assessment (250)
Multimethod Assessment
personality is best assessed by using multiple methods (tests of different types, interview data, observations, etc)
each method offers a unique perspective on the client
Evidence-Based Assessment
methods are selected with strong psychometrics (reliability, validity and clinical utility), sufficient normative data and are sensitive to diversity
target assessment toward particular diagnosis or problem
clinicians have to integrate what works with their own clinical judgement
Culturally Competent Assessment
every culture has different perceptions of what is normal and what is abnormal
overpathologizing: viewing as abnormal that which is culturally normal; clinical psychologist has to appreciate the meaning of a behavior, thought, or feeling within the context of the client's culture which may dffer from the psychologist's own culture
sources of cultural bias: clinician, test and service delivery method
Objective Personality Tests
objective personality tests: unambiguous test items, offer clients a limited range of responses and are objectively scored
projective personality tests: ambiguous stimuli and an open-ended range of client responses; based on the assumption that clients reveal their personalities by the way they make sense of vaguely defined objects or situations
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2): the most popular and the most psychometrically sound objective personality test used by clinical psychologists
client reads 567 self-descriptive sentences and marks each sentence as either true or false as it applies to him or her
Starke Hathaway and J.C. McKinley: the original authors of the original MMPI; took on the challenge of creating a list of items that empirically elicit different responses from people in these normal and abnormal groups
empirical criterion keying: involves identifying distinct groups of people, asking them all to respond to the same test items, and comparing responses between groups
distinct groups were evaluated and consisted of people who had been diagnosed with a particular mental disorder and individuals who didn't have a mental health diagnosis
items appear on the test in a random order but are assigned into one of 10 groups which represented a clinical scale
the higher a client scored on a particular scale, the greater the likelihood that he or she demonstrated that form of psychopathology
original group names were maintained to have continuity but may seem outdated now
assess the clients test-taking attitudes because self-report instruments are vulnerable to insincere efforts by the client
validity scales: used to inform the clinical psychologist about the client's approach to the test and allow the psychologist to determine whether the test is valid and what kinds of adjustments might be appropriate during the process of interpreting the clinical scales
L for lying (faking good)
K for defensiveness (faking good)
F for infrequency (faking bad)
revision process included: normative data was selected from a more demographically diverse group (people who closely matched Census data from 7 states were selected) than the original norm group (which was primarily rural and white in Minnesota); removal or revision of some test items with outdated or awkward wording; authors of MMPI-2 sought to keep the revised version as similar as possible to the original MMPI to maintain familiarity
Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A): published in 1992 for clients aged 14-18 years; similar in administration, format, scoring and interpretation to the MMPI-2; normed on 2500 adolescents matching US census data
MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF): contains 388 of the 567 items on the MMPI-2; scales are called the restructured clinical scales are close to the 10 clinical scales in other versions of the MMPI
Therapeutic Assessment (TA): the use of psychological testing as a brief therapeutic intervention, emphasizing an interactive feedback session
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV: comprehensive personality test (true/false format) which emphasizes personality disorders
features separate clinical scales corresponding to each of the 10 current personality disorders in the DSM; designed for adults but inventories have been designed for adolescents and children
originally created in 1977 by Theodore Millon, updated in 2015
195 true/false items, including modifier indices similar to the validity scales of MMPI
NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R): personality measure that assesses "normal" personality characteristics
look at neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness with 6 facets in each domain
240-item self-report questionnaire with multiple choice responses
originally published in 1985, updated in 1992
NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI): short form (60 items) test
lacks substantive measurement of the test taker's approach to the test (unlike the validity scales of the MMPI)
California Psychological Inventory (CPI): deemphasizes pathology as the defining characteristic of personality; emphasizes the positive attributes of personality
originally published in the 1950s
currently available in two versions: CPI-434 and CPI-260- named after the number of items in each
yields scores on 20 scales, names which reflect the positive nature of the test
regarded negatively by clinicians looking to diagnose disorders but positively by those looking to understands broad range of their clients' abilities and talents
used widely in industrial/organizational psychology with the intent of understanding personality for the purpose of maximizing productivity, interpersonal compatibility, and leadership abilities
postive psychology: accentuates the strong and healthy rather than the pathological aspects of human behavior
Beck Depression Inventory-II: self-report, pencil and paper test that assesses depressive symptoms in adults and adolescents
originally created in the 1960s; current version was published in 1996
21 items, only requiring 5-10 minutes to complete
each item is a set of four statements regarding a particular symptom of depression, listed in order of increasing severity, with points assigned to symptoms in increasing increments; the sentence in each set that best describes their personal experience during the previous two weeks
lacks validity scales, but reliability and validity are strongly established
Projective Personality Tests
based on the assumption that people will project their personalities if presented with unstructured, ambiguous stimuli and an unrestricted opportunity to respond
the lack of objectivity is the most frequently cited shortcoming of personality assessments
Rorschach Inkblot Method: 10 inkblots (5 in color and 5 in black and white) administered in two phases
Response/Free Association Phase: psychologist presents one inkblot at a time, asking what it might be and writing the client's response verbatim
Inquiry Phase: the psychologist reads the client's responses aloud and asks the client to describe exactly where in the inkblot each response was located and what features of the inkblot caused the client to offer that response
originally published in 1921, but was not accompanied by a scoring method
Comprehensive System: the most common method of scoring the Rorschach; includes normative data collected from thousands of children and adults (Rorschach can be used across almost the entire life span)
how the client perceives the blot is no less important than what the client sees
clients who consistently offer distorted, atypical perceptions of inkblots are thought to do similar things in life
test-retest reliability is strong, but some studies have weak reliability and validity data, scoring and interpretation guidelines are complex and norms may be inadequate
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): TAT cards feature interpersonal scenes and the client's task is to create a story to go along with each scene; asked to consider not only what is happening in the scene at the moment and what happened before and may happen after the scene and what the characters are thinking and feeling
considered a global measure of personality, but its strength may lie in its ability to measure interpersonal relationship tendencies
includes a total of 31 cards, but psychologists typically select 10 or so cards to administer to a particular client
as the client tells stores aloud and the psychologist writes them down, the psychologist may ask questions to solicit more information and remind the client of the initial instructions
often analyzed without formal scoring, although scoring systems have been offered
validity and reliability of the TAT are less well established than those of other personality tests because administration and interpretation is not uniform
Children's Apperception Test (CAT) and Senior Apperception Test (SAT)
Tell-Me-a-Story (TEMAS) apperception test (designed for children and adolescents): places greater emphasis on empirical scoring via normative data as well as cultural sensitivity
Sentence Completion Tests: ambiguous stimuli are beginnings of sentences
assumption is that clients' personalities are revealed by the endings they add and the sentences they create
Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB): originally published in 1950, updated in 1992; 40 sentence stems referring to various aspects of the client's life are presented and the client completes them
includes a formal scoring system but clinical psychologists may not use it regularly-- scientific standing is questionable
RISB can flush out results from other tests such as objective personality tests
Behavioral Assessment
client behaviors are not signs of underlying issues or problems; instead, those behaviors are the problems
Methods of Behavioral Assessment
behavioral/naturalistic observation: the most essential technique; the direct, systematic observation of a client's behavior in the natural environment; involves taking a direct sample of the problem at the site where it occurs
step 1: identifying and operationally defining the problem behavior (via interviews, behavior checklists, consultation, self-monitoring, etc)
step 2: systematic observation (tallying the frequency, duration or intensity of the target behavior)
includes recording events that occur immediately before and after the target behavior
interviews and questionnaires used have the singular goal of identifying the function of the problem behavior
Technology in Behavioral Assessment
software programs allow for simultaneous recording of multiple variables, graphing and statistical analysis of behavior patterns
self-monitoring: defining the target behavior or measuring changes in it over time; can be done in a journal or on an app
Traditional Personality Assessment techniques assume that personality is a stable, internal construct; personality assessment requires inference; client behaviors are signs of underlying issues or problems