Personality assessment is the measure
Personality Psychology – Foundations and Findings Chapter 4 – Personality Assessment -
Personality assessment is the measurement of the individual characteristics of a person Personality tests are most commonly used
What Makes a Good Personality Test? - Personality test developers must demonstrate that the test is valid and reliable, and specify the conditions, populations and cultures that the test applies to o They have to provide theoretical background and research evidence confirming that the test is related to certain outcomes - Legitimate personality tests have reliability, validity, and generalizability - Test Reliability: Generalizability Across Time, Items, and Raters o Reliability - an estimate of how consistent a test is, a prerequisite for validity, describes the extent to which test scores are consistent and reproducible with repeated measurements A test should give consistent results across time, items, and raters o Temporal consistency reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results over time, demonstrated through test-retest reliability (participants taking the test a second time) In test-retest, the second test has to be far enough removed in time so that there are no memory or practice effects, but not so far that the participants have changed in the interim o Internal consistency reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results items, demonstrated with parallel forms reliability (make up parallel versions of a test and check for similar scores), split-half reliability (see if scores on one half of a test correlate to scores on the other half), or Cronbach’s alpha (statistic that estimates the generalizability of the score from one set of items to the other) An alpha of 0.7-0.8 suggests a reliable test o Interrater reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results across raters (i.e. two separate judges rate the personality of a third person) - Test Validity o Validity is the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure o A test has validity if it is grounded in research evidence; if it correlates with some standard o Construct validity: when as assessment measures the theoretical concept it was designed to measure, to be established – must demonstrate what a test measures and doesn’t measure o Face validity: when an assessment appears to measure the concept it was designed to measure based on the kinds of questions it contains When a test has face validity, respondents view the content of a test as fair and relevant to a situation or particular outcome, they also take the test more seriously Researchers often disguise content of a test to avoid participants faking answers, this compromises face validity to establish other kinds of validity o Criterion validity: when an assessment’s results are compared to the results of an external standard (i.e. another personality test) Convergent validity: compares an assessment’s results to other tests of the same or related constructs to see how good it is Discriminant validity: compares an assessment’s results to other tests of unrelated constructs to see how good it is
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Predictive validity: when an assessment can provide feedback that is specific to a person or group of people who share a certain characteristic o Barnum Effect: when people believe feedback from an invalid personality because it is so general that it can apply to many people at the same time Test Generalizability o Generalizability establishes the boundaries or limitations of a test; we can’t use a test for other than what it was intended or administer it to people it was not validated on i.e. many tests specify that they are intended for children or adults, but not both Research Methods Illustrated: Is the NEO-PI-R a Good Personality Test? o Alphas ranged from 0.56-0.81 for the various facets, acceptable for scales of only 8 items; good reliability o Valid for use in many populations and in many settings
Personality Tests - Types and Formats of Personality Tests o Self-report tests: respondents answer questions about themselves, formats and question styles can vary depending on the purpose of the test, a.k.a. objective tests o Performance-based tests: unstructured format where participants respond to an ambiguous stimulus in as much detail as they would like, a.k.a. projective tests o Self-report Tests: measures may use a 2-choice scale or a Likert-type rating scale (i.e. strongly disagree-strongly agree) Forced-choice format: respondents get a limited number of choices rather than a rating scale (i.e. true-false questions) Machiavellianism – the extent to which a person believes that other people are easily manipulable o Performance-based Tests: often used in more clinical settings and forensic settings Validity of performance-based tests is highly controversial Projective techniques used in tests: association techniques, construction techniques, completion techniques, arrangement or selection of stimuli, expression techniques - Response Sets o People may not be the best judges of their own skill, experience, or knowledge, often overestimating their performance posing a problem for self-report tests o Faking good: when participants answer questions to make themselves seem better than they are o Faking bad: when participants answer questions to make themselves seem worse than they are (i.e. underqualified to receive some benefit) o Socially desirable responding: when people respond to make themselves seem more socially appropriate o Acquiescent responding: responding by agreeing to whatever the question is asking o Reactant responding: responding by disagreeing to whatever the question is asking o Extreme responding: respondents avoid the middle of the scale (i.e. choosing only 1s and 5s on a 1-5 scale) o Moderate responding: respondents choose the midpoint of the scales in their responses o Patterned responding: participant makes patterns on their answer sheet o Response sets/noncontent responding: when people have a set way that they tend to respond to self-report questions, can lead to false results o To control for response sets, write half the items so that a high rating indicates the trait and the other half so that a low rating indicates the trait Personality Tests and Selection
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Personality tests can be used to aid in selection, training, and performance in business Close to a third of employers use some form of psychological assessment as part of their hiring process, including mental and physical ability tests, achievement tests, personality tests, etc. Roughly 20% of companies (in the Fortune 1000) use some form of personality testing Applicants with a combination of the personality characteristics of adaptability, passion for work, emotional maturity, positive disposition, self-efficacy, and an achievement orientation are 14 times more likely than others to be engaged and productive employees Personality measures of good test construction can help predict job performance and enhance fairness in hiring and personnel decisions Employers can use personality tests to identify exceptional applicants Integrity Testing o Approx. 1/3 of employers use some form of integrity testing to test the honesty of candidates to see if they are likely to steal or cheat o Overt/clear purpose integrity tests: meant to detect honesty, often through two parts – one that directly assesses attitudes towards dishonest behaviours, and a second that asks about theft and other illegal activities o Disguised purpose integrity tests: more subtle way of assessing integrity o Can be assessed through personality-based measures as well Legal Issues o Employee selection must adhere to federal laws (U.S.) that prohibit discrimination on the basis of colour, race, religion, sex, or national origin o Assessment tests are legal unless they have a disparate impact on disadvantaged groups o Using personality tests to select employees is legal as long as the tests identify personality characteristics that are important for successful performance on the job o Preemployment integrity testing is valid, useful, and predictive of who is likely to behave counterproductively on the job Then and Now: Personality Assessment and Matchmaking o G. Crane, 1939 – interviewed 600 husbands, compiled 50 most frequently mentioned positive and negative qualities, formed a questionnaire, but scoring was biased o Crane, 1957 – established the Scientific Marriage Foundation, where he claimed to have arranged over 5000 marriages through psychological testing o Principle of using psychological testing to match people is even more popular today
Chapter Summary - Real personality tests have been empirically tested to have reliability, validity and generalizability, whereas fake personality tests often use Barnum statements to fool people into thinking that they are accurately measuring personality - Personality tests can be self-report (objective) or performance-based (projective) - In business, personality tests can be used to screen applicants for important characteristics related to success on the job, medical and clinical tests are disallowed and other questions that may violate the right to privacy
Personality assessment is the measurement of the individual characteristics of a person Personality tests are most commonly used
What Makes a Good Personality Test? - Personality test developers must demonstrate that the test is valid and reliable, and specify the conditions, populations and cultures that the test applies to o They have to provide theoretical background and research evidence confirming that the test is related to certain outcomes - Legitimate personality tests have reliability, validity, and generalizability - Test Reliability: Generalizability Across Time, Items, and Raters o Reliability - an estimate of how consistent a test is, a prerequisite for validity, describes the extent to which test scores are consistent and reproducible with repeated measurements A test should give consistent results across time, items, and raters o Temporal consistency reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results over time, demonstrated through test-retest reliability (participants taking the test a second time) In test-retest, the second test has to be far enough removed in time so that there are no memory or practice effects, but not so far that the participants have changed in the interim o Internal consistency reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results items, demonstrated with parallel forms reliability (make up parallel versions of a test and check for similar scores), split-half reliability (see if scores on one half of a test correlate to scores on the other half), or Cronbach’s alpha (statistic that estimates the generalizability of the score from one set of items to the other) An alpha of 0.7-0.8 suggests a reliable test o Interrater reliability: when an assessment gives consistent results across raters (i.e. two separate judges rate the personality of a third person) - Test Validity o Validity is the extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure o A test has validity if it is grounded in research evidence; if it correlates with some standard o Construct validity: when as assessment measures the theoretical concept it was designed to measure, to be established – must demonstrate what a test measures and doesn’t measure o Face validity: when an assessment appears to measure the concept it was designed to measure based on the kinds of questions it contains When a test has face validity, respondents view the content of a test as fair and relevant to a situation or particular outcome, they also take the test more seriously Researchers often disguise content of a test to avoid participants faking answers, this compromises face validity to establish other kinds of validity o Criterion validity: when an assessment’s results are compared to the results of an external standard (i.e. another personality test) Convergent validity: compares an assessment’s results to other tests of the same or related constructs to see how good it is Discriminant validity: compares an assessment’s results to other tests of unrelated constructs to see how good it is
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Predictive validity: when an assessment can provide feedback that is specific to a person or group of people who share a certain characteristic o Barnum Effect: when people believe feedback from an invalid personality because it is so general that it can apply to many people at the same time Test Generalizability o Generalizability establishes the boundaries or limitations of a test; we can’t use a test for other than what it was intended or administer it to people it was not validated on i.e. many tests specify that they are intended for children or adults, but not both Research Methods Illustrated: Is the NEO-PI-R a Good Personality Test? o Alphas ranged from 0.56-0.81 for the various facets, acceptable for scales of only 8 items; good reliability o Valid for use in many populations and in many settings
Personality Tests - Types and Formats of Personality Tests o Self-report tests: respondents answer questions about themselves, formats and question styles can vary depending on the purpose of the test, a.k.a. objective tests o Performance-based tests: unstructured format where participants respond to an ambiguous stimulus in as much detail as they would like, a.k.a. projective tests o Self-report Tests: measures may use a 2-choice scale or a Likert-type rating scale (i.e. strongly disagree-strongly agree) Forced-choice format: respondents get a limited number of choices rather than a rating scale (i.e. true-false questions) Machiavellianism – the extent to which a person believes that other people are easily manipulable o Performance-based Tests: often used in more clinical settings and forensic settings Validity of performance-based tests is highly controversial Projective techniques used in tests: association techniques, construction techniques, completion techniques, arrangement or selection of stimuli, expression techniques - Response Sets o People may not be the best judges of their own skill, experience, or knowledge, often overestimating their performance posing a problem for self-report tests o Faking good: when participants answer questions to make themselves seem better than they are o Faking bad: when participants answer questions to make themselves seem worse than they are (i.e. underqualified to receive some benefit) o Socially desirable responding: when people respond to make themselves seem more socially appropriate o Acquiescent responding: responding by agreeing to whatever the question is asking o Reactant responding: responding by disagreeing to whatever the question is asking o Extreme responding: respondents avoid the middle of the scale (i.e. choosing only 1s and 5s on a 1-5 scale) o Moderate responding: respondents choose the midpoint of the scales in their responses o Patterned responding: participant makes patterns on their answer sheet o Response sets/noncontent responding: when people have a set way that they tend to respond to self-report questions, can lead to false results o To control for response sets, write half the items so that a high rating indicates the trait and the other half so that a low rating indicates the trait Personality Tests and Selection
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Personality tests can be used to aid in selection, training, and performance in business Close to a third of employers use some form of psychological assessment as part of their hiring process, including mental and physical ability tests, achievement tests, personality tests, etc. Roughly 20% of companies (in the Fortune 1000) use some form of personality testing Applicants with a combination of the personality characteristics of adaptability, passion for work, emotional maturity, positive disposition, self-efficacy, and an achievement orientation are 14 times more likely than others to be engaged and productive employees Personality measures of good test construction can help predict job performance and enhance fairness in hiring and personnel decisions Employers can use personality tests to identify exceptional applicants Integrity Testing o Approx. 1/3 of employers use some form of integrity testing to test the honesty of candidates to see if they are likely to steal or cheat o Overt/clear purpose integrity tests: meant to detect honesty, often through two parts – one that directly assesses attitudes towards dishonest behaviours, and a second that asks about theft and other illegal activities o Disguised purpose integrity tests: more subtle way of assessing integrity o Can be assessed through personality-based measures as well Legal Issues o Employee selection must adhere to federal laws (U.S.) that prohibit discrimination on the basis of colour, race, religion, sex, or national origin o Assessment tests are legal unless they have a disparate impact on disadvantaged groups o Using personality tests to select employees is legal as long as the tests identify personality characteristics that are important for successful performance on the job o Preemployment integrity testing is valid, useful, and predictive of who is likely to behave counterproductively on the job Then and Now: Personality Assessment and Matchmaking o G. Crane, 1939 – interviewed 600 husbands, compiled 50 most frequently mentioned positive and negative qualities, formed a questionnaire, but scoring was biased o Crane, 1957 – established the Scientific Marriage Foundation, where he claimed to have arranged over 5000 marriages through psychological testing o Principle of using psychological testing to match people is even more popular today
Chapter Summary - Real personality tests have been empirically tested to have reliability, validity and generalizability, whereas fake personality tests often use Barnum statements to fool people into thinking that they are accurately measuring personality - Personality tests can be self-report (objective) or performance-based (projective) - In business, personality tests can be used to screen applicants for important characteristics related to success on the job, medical and clinical tests are disallowed and other questions that may violate the right to privacy
