PERSONALITY TEST

A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person's

character that remain stable throughout that person's

lifetime, the individual's character pattern of behavior,

thoughts, and feelings. An early model of personality was

posited by Greek philosopher/physician Hippocrates.

There are two major types of personality tests.

1) Projective tests

2) Objective tests

1) PROJECTIVE TEST
“In psychology, a projective test is a type of

personality test in which the individual offers

responses to ambiguous scenes, words or images.”

This type of test emerged from the psychoanalytic school of thought, which suggested

that people have unconscious thoughts or urges. These projective tests were intended to

uncover such unconscious desires that are hidden from conscious awareness.

HOW DOES PROJECTIVE TEST WORK?

In many projective tests, the participant is shown an ambiguous image and then asked to

give the first response that comes to mind. The key to projective tests is the ambiguity of

the stimuli.

THEORY:

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The general theoretical position behind projective tests is that whenever a specific

question is asked, the response will be consciously-formulated and socially determined.

These responses do not reflect the respondent's unconscious attitudes. The respondent's

deep-seated motivations may not be consciously recognized by the respondent or the

respondent may not be able to verbally express them in the form demanded by the

questioner. Advocates of projective tests stress that the ambiguity of the stimuli presented

within the tests allow subjects to express thoughts that originate on a deeper level than

tapped by explicit questions. In other words clearly defined questions result in answers

that are carefully crafted by the conscious mind. By providing the participant with a

question or stimulus that is not clear, the underlying and unconscious motivations or

attitudes are revealed.

TYPES OF PROJECTIVE TESTS

There are a number of different types of projective tests. The following are just a few

examples of some of the best-known projective tests.

• THE RORSCHACH INKBLOT TEST:

The Rorschach Inkblot was one of the first projective

tests, and continues to be one of the best-known.

Developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach

in 1921, the test consists of 10 different cards that

depict an ambiguous inkblot. Some are in black and white, some in color. The

participant is shown one card at a time and asked to describe what he or she sees in the

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image. Because the stimulus is ambiguous, the patient must impose his or her own

structure. In doing so, thoughts, feelings, and themes, some of which are unconscious,

are projected into the material. The responses are recorded accurately by the tester.

Gestures, tone of voice, and

other reactions are also noted.

The results of the test can

vary depending on which

scoring system the examiner

uses, of which many different systems exist. For example, if someone consistently sees

the images as threatening and frightening, the tester might infer that the subject may

suffer from paranoia. (The term was used to describe a mental illness in which a

delusional belief is the sole or most prominent feature.)

• THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT):

In the Thematic Apperception Test, Test takers look at a series of up to 20 pictures of

people in a variety of recognizable settings

and construct a story about what is

happening in each one including how the

characters are feeling and how the story will

end. The examiner then scores the test

based on the needs, motivations and

anxieties of the main character as well as how the story eventually turns out. The

examiner then evaluates these descriptions, attempting to discover the conflicts,

motivations and attitudes of the respondent. In the answers, the respondent "projects"

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 their unconscious attitudes and motivations into the picture, which is why these are

referred to as "projective tests."

• DRAW-A-PERSON TEST:

The Draw-A-Person test requires the subject to draw a person. The results are based on a

psychodynamic interpretation of the details of the drawing, such as the size, shape and

complexity of the facial features, clothing and background of the figure. As with other

projective tests, the approach has very little demonstrated validity and there is evidence

that therapists may attribute pathology to individuals who are merely poor artists.

• SENTENCE COMPLETION TEST:

Sentence completion tests require the subject complete sentence "stems" with their own

words. The subject's response is considered to be a projection of their conscious and/or

unconscious attitudes,personality characteristics, motivations, and beliefs.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF PROJECTIVE TESTS

Projective tests are most frequently used in therapeutic settings. In many cases, therapists

use these tests to learn qualitative information about a client. Some therapists may use

projective tests as a sort of icebreaker to encourage the client to discuss issues or examine

thoughts and emotions.

While projective tests have some benefits, they also have a number of weaknesses and

limitations. For example, the respondent's answers can be heavily influenced by the

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examiner's attitudes or the test setting. Scoring projective tests is also highly subjective,

so interpretations of answers can vary dramatically from one examiner to the next.

Additionally, projective tests lack both validity and reliability and many have no

standardized criteria to which results may be compared. Validity refers to whether or not

a test is measuring what it purports to measure, while reliability refers to the consistency

of the test results. However, the information which they provide tends to be richer and

more varied.

2) OBJECTIVE TEST
“Objective test is a psychological test that measures an

individual's characteristics in a way that is independent of

rater bias or the examiner's own beliefs, usually by the

administration of a bank of questions that are marked and

compared against exacting scoring mechanisms that are

completely standardized, much in the same examinations are

administered.”

TYPES OF OBJECTIVE TEST

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 Objective personality tests designed for use in

business or on normal populations include the

NEO-PI, the 16PF, and the Occupational

Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) all of which

are based on the Big Five taxonomy. The Big

Five, or Five Factor Model of normal

personality has gained acceptance since the early 1990s when some influential meta-

analyses (e.g., Barrick & Mount 1991) found consistent relationships between the Big

Five factors (conscientiousness, openness to experience, neuroticism (emotional

stability), agreeableness and extraversion) and job performance.

• THE NEO PERSONALITY INVENTORY

The NEO PI was designed to provide a general description of normal personality relevant

to clinical, counseling and educational situations. The five domains (factors) measured by

the NEO PI provide a general description of personality,The NEO Personality Inventory

measures the Big Five traits: extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness,

conscientiousness, and neuroticism.

Neuroticism
Neuroticism

Openness to Extraversion
Openness to
experience Extraversion
experience
NEO
NEO
PERSONALIY
PERSONALIY
TEST
TEST

Agreeableness Conscienti-
Agreeableness 6 Conscienti-
usness
usness
Neuroticism: identifies individuals who are prone to psychological distress

Extraversion: quantity and intensity of energy directed outwards into the social world

Openness to Experience: the active seeking and appreciation of experiences for their

own sake

Agreeableness: the kinds of interactions an individual prefers from compassion to tough

mindedness

Conscientiousness: degree of organization, persistence, control and motivation in goal

directed behaviour

• The 16 PERSONALITY FACTOR:

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) is a test that assesses sixteen

basic dimensions of personality. It consists of a list of 187 questions. The 16PF was

developed from the work of Dr. Raymond Cattell and his factor analysis over 45 years

ago. Instead of four, there are 16 different scales that measure things like anxiety,

liveliness, dominance, sensitivity, perfectionism, openness to change, group-orientation,

and more. It is useful in predicting behavior in a range of settings, and to provide an in-

depth, integrated picture of the individual's whole personality. For example, it is

commonly used in schools and colleges, clinical and counseling settings, in career

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 counseling and employee selection and

development, as well as in basic

personality research. Research has

indicated that the test is useful in

predicting a wide variety of behaviors,

such as creativity, academic success,

cognitive style, empathy and

interpersonal skills, leadership potential, conscientiousness, self-esteem, frustration

tolerance, coping patterns, marital compatibility, and job performance

• OCCUPATIONAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE (OPQ):

The Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ) provides in-depth information on

how individuals fit within a work environment, how they will work with others and their

performance potential against job competencies.

The OPQ can make a major contribution to achieving person-to-job fit by providing line

managers with business-relevant reports into the strengths and development areas of

applicants.

By assessing personality at the candidate selection stage, many organizations are reaping

significant benefits by saving time and money. Increases in productivity, and cost savings

due to more efficient and effective candidate selection are just some of the benefits

possible.

The OPQ can also be used in the following development contexts:

• Training Needs Analysis and Individual Management Development

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 • Career Counseling

• Succession Planning

• Team Building and Development

• Organizational Change

• Research

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF OBJECTIVE TEST

Objective tests are useful because they allow psychologists to get precise answers to

standardized questions. In other words, all subjects who take a test answer the same

questions, and all subjects have to select answers from the same range of options. In

objective test, different people scoring the same test would score them in the same way.

However, these scores might be interpreted differently by different people.

There are several disadvantages to objective tests as well:

• Objective test often contain transparent questions, which means subjects can

figure out what a psychologist wants to measure. Therefore, subjects can lie

intentionally and fake personality traits they don’t really have. Researchers who

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 develop tests address this problem by including lie scales in tests, which provide

information about the likelihood that a subject is lying.

• The social desirability bias can affect responses on self-report inventories. In

other words, when filling out an inventory, people might state what they wish

were true, rather than what is true. Test developers can minimize this bias by

dropping questions that are likely to evoke it.

• People sometimes don’t understand the questions on the test. Test developers try

to address this issue by wording questions very clearly so that they have only one

possible interpretation.

• People sometimes don’t remember aspects of the experience they are asked about.

REFERENCES

• Trull, T. (2005). Clinical Psychology, 7th Edition. Belmont, CA. Thomson

Wadsworth

• Cordón, Luis A. (2005). Popular Psychology: an encyclopedia

• http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologicaltesting/f/projective-tests.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projective_test

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective_test

• http://www.psychologicaltesting.com/blots.htm

• http://www.psychologicaltesting.com/objectiv.htm

• http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles

• http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/tests.objective.html

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• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/478711/the_advantages_and_disadvanta

ges

• http://www.psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/objective-personality-tests/

• http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/personality/section7.rhtml

• http://www.ml-shopping.com/wiki/Psychological_testing.html#Personality_tests

• http://www.yozenmind.blogspot.com/2009/06/psychological-testing.html

• http://www.ashridge.org.uk/website/content.nsf/wELNPSY/Psychometric+Instru

ments+-+Occupational+Personality+Questionnaire+(OPQ)

• http://www.discoveryourpersonality.com

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