Personality types

Unit 5
Outline

Personality testing

projective personality test:

• Rorschach Inkblot
• Holtzmsn Inkblot
• Thematic Apperception
• drawing test
• self-report technique
• observation and interview
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Learning Outcome
Explain the nature and purpose of
personality testing.
Recognise the usage of personality testing
in different settings.
Assess the validity and reliability of
personality testing techniques.
Identify the different types of personality
test techniques.
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of
the personality test techniques

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INTRODUCTION TO
PERSONALITY TESTING
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Why study personality
testing?

Helps
Provide self-
psychologists Help answer
understandin
know how a questions put
Guide therapy g of peoples’
person is to them by
strengths and
coping with people
weaknesses
stress and life

Unit 5 Pyschological Testing 5

personality testing
techniques
evaluate the
effectiveness of
test different various
personality psychological
theories treatments

measure
developmental
changes in
Personality

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What is personality
testing?
“the systematic measurement of
various aspects of personality”

includes
• human motivation
• personality traits
• personality dynamics
• personality development
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Why conduct personality
testing?
two major
functions
helps researchers and
personality psychologists
obtain information in a
meaningful and accurate
manner.
Unit 5 Pyschological Testing
helps communicate this
information more effectively
among personality
psychologists and other
professionals, namely
psychiatrists, counsellors
andpersonnel managers.
8
Where is personality
testing done?
• Clinical
• Counselling
various • Legal

settings •
•
educational and vocational guidance
Personnel
• research settings

carried out
by •
•
clinical psychologists
Psychiatrists
different •
•
personnel managers
social workers
types of • guidance counsellors

people
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Evaluating personality
testing techniques
Two of the most
important standards
used in evaluating
personality testing
techniques are

reliability validity

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PROJECTIVE
PERSONALITY TEST
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How does projective test
work?
intended to uncover such unconscious
desires hidden from conscious awareness.

Respondents are shown certain ambiguous

scenes, words or images and asked to give
the first response that comes to mind.

assumed that the underlying and

unconscious motivations or attitudes will
be revealed.
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The Rorschach Inkblot
test

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The Rorschach Inkblot
test

identify psychological
Hermann Rorschach
disorders

Examiners keep a
respondent is shown 10 verbatim record of the
inkblots and asked to responses and also take
tell what the inkblot note of other details, such
represents as the time and duration
of the responses.
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The Holtzman Inkblot
technique

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The Holtzman Inkblot
technique

eliminate technical
deficiencies or Administering and
consist of a set of
limitations of the scoring of the HIT
45 inkblots in the
Rorschach while are standardised
test series plus two
maintaining the and clearly
practice blots.
advantages of the described
inkblot method

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The Thematic
Apperception test
Henry Murray and Christine Morgan.

in the form of 30 pictures that depict various social scenes

respondent is presented with the pictures and asked to

compose a story about each picture

Assumption=individual will “project” his or her own needs,

conflicts and desires onto the pictures

5 aspects
• hero, needs, press, themes and outcomes.

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The Thematic
Apperception test

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Drawing test

Drawings of the human figure

examples
• Machover Draw-a-Person test
• House-Tree-Person technique
• Kinetic Family Drawing

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Machover Draw-a-Person
test

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Machover Draw-a-Person
test

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House-Tree-Person
technique

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Kinetic Family Drawing

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Evaluating projective
techniques
strength freedom of response they allow

The method makes it possible to limit any

attempts by individuals to modify their
responses in accordance with what the
examiner wants to hear.
useful in therapeutic settings and help in
obtaining a more global and meaningful
picture of the individual’s personality.

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Evaluating projective
techniques
limitations scoring procedures of projective techniques
are extremely complex

The respondent’s answers can also be

heavily influenced by the examiner’s
attitudes or the test setting
Scoring projective tests is highly subjective,
so interpretations of answers can vary
dramatically from one examiner to the next
lack both validity and reliability

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THE SELF-REPORT
TECHNIQUE
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Main characteristics of
the self-report technique
individuals providing information
about their own thoughts, feelings
and behaviour in response to
questions asked

The response alternatives available

to the items in the tests and the
procedures for scoring the responses
are standardised
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Main characteristics of
the self-report technique

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Single versus multi-
dimensional personality
tests
Single
dimension • California F Scale
test

Multi- • attempt to measure more than one

dimension of personality at a time
dimension • California Psychological Inventory
personalit • Edward Personal Preferences
y tests Schedule

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California F Scale

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California Psychological
Inventory

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Edward Personal
Preferences Schedule

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The Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality
Inventory
most widely used and extensively
researched selfreport techniques

The original MMPI and the revised Minnesota

Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)
are multidimension personality tests.

help in diagnosing and classifying

individual’s experiencing various
psychopathologies
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The Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality
Inventory

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Self-directed search

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Self-directed search

Assessment of occupational interests

simplicity and brevity, its do-it-yourself

feature and its role in expanding the
individual’s career options

designed to be a self-administered, self-

scored and self-interpreted vocational
counselling instrument
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The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator

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The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator
assessing personality in normal
individuals

based on Carl Jung’s theory of

personality types

two general types of personality

attitudes
• people orient themselves toward the
world(extraversion) and introversion
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The Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator

four ways-people can experience or come to

know the world

• sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition functions

determine where people fall into the

introversion-extraversion dimension and on
which of the four functions or ways they
most rely on to experience or know the world

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The Personality Plus
approach

four key personality types

• choleric, melancholy, sanguine and phlegmatic

identifying a person’s profile, and more about the

implications that may have for group interactions

used in sales and negotiation training, and for

understanding group dynamics in business.

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The Personality Plus
approach

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Evaluating self-report
techniques
strengths given for individuals or groups and even
online

administered quickly and easily

scored in a relatively easy and objective

manner and has greater face validity
than other personality testing instruments

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Evaluating self-report
techniques

Limitations
Researchers must depend on the respondent’s ability
and willingness to provide accurate information.

Respondents could provide misleading information

or may not take the test seriously.

Respondents could even report unnecessary or

incorrect information to sabotage the research.

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OBSERVATIONS AND
INTERVIEWS
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Observations and
interviews
most widely used

most understood and

accepted methods of
personality testing

involve the acts of looking and

listening

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Observation

observer taking notes of certain

events
• particular behaviour, and records what is
observed

most common procedure

• uncontrolled observation of behaviour
• participation observation, where the observer
is part of the observational setting
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Observation

Prearranged or controlled
observations

communicated as
objective, verifiable
Determining how people
behaviour, rather than in
behave in various
psychological terminology
situations or settings
that may mean different
things to different readers.

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Observation

Self-observation is a useful
method of collecting
observational data for both
research and clinical purposes.

biographical information
Personal documents such as
recorded on application forms, in
diaries, letters and
letters of recommendations and
autobiographies provide a rich
in answers provided in bio-data
source of information for
forms may provide insights into
psychologists
personality characteristics.

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Interviews

one of the oldest and most widely used methods

of personality assessment

Provides information on what a person says, as well

as what he or she does.

consists of details of the interviewee’s background

or life history, data related to his or her feelings,
attitudes, perceptions and expectations.

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Interviews

requires skill and sensitivity

The procedure varies with the purposes of

the interview, but as in any interpersonal
situation, the outcomes depend on the
personality and actions of both the
interviewer and the interviewee
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Evaluating the
observation and
interview techniques
Interviewing is an important psychological tool
but like the observation approach, it has its
problems with regards to reliability and validity

Differing impressions on the part of the

respondent can result in differences in behaviour

the interviewer’s perceptions of the interviewee

can be distorted by his or her own experiences
and personality

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THE END

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