Each student will find and describe an instrument in their field of interest.
This paper will be no more than 2 pages and should briefly introduce the instrument, its purpose, what kind of items are used, and describe and interpret information presented regarding reliability and validity of the instrument.
Students should comment on how the instrument is scored and used in analyses if the authors provided explicit instructions.
Often the person supplies information about their personality (self-reporting)
May be from diaries or an interview and can elicit very private information
Self-report measures self-concept (e.g. Beck Self-Concept Test)
What are some measurement issues with this?
Lots of measurement issues though!!!
Biased leading to be too generous or severe
May want to rate person as "normal", i.e. in the middle
Something may overshadow (the halo effect)
Context important
Other problems?
May measure thoughts, feelings, behaviors
Can also measure response style (characteristic response pattern independent of the content)
Are they being honest? Are they responding in a socially desirable way? These are validity issues Attempts to measure this on a test - validity scale
Myriad of formats used: traditional test, interviews, performance tasks, etc
They may be structured or unstructured
Most important is a clear definition of the construct of interest!
Now, in the past, in the future
How I see myself, how others see me, etc
Q-sort technique, ranking of variables based on some instruction
"Most how I feel about this course" to "Least how I feel about this course"
Based on Q-factor analysis
Adjective checklist and sentence completion
Range from simple summing of responses to complex algorithms requiring experts
Depends on test makers approach to personality
Is it a nomothetic vs. idiographic approach?
Is scoring normative or ipsative?
Cattell in the 1940's - 16 primary factors
Are these distinct?
The Big Five
Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness
Recall, a criterion is a standard or benchmark used for decisions
A criterion group is a homogeneous, reference group that serves as the basis for deciding whether items should be included on a final version of an instrument
This process is known as empirical criterion keying
Let's measure extraversion
Many different scales and very long, see Table 12-3
Lots and lots of supplementary scales
Includes three validity scale
L scale, need to a certain score to determine whether you are willing to speak negatively
F scale, items that typically only a psychiatric population would endorse
K scale, defensiveness, giving a favorable impression
Too many cannot says - question validity of score
Needed a more representative sample
Rewrote and write lots of new items
Added items about drugs, suicde, marriage, work, Type A behaviors
Even more validity scales
MMPI-2-RF Need to added the demoralization factor
Need to reduce overlap in items on multiple scales (discriminant validity)
Also added higher-order scales (e..g Internalizing dysfunction) (Table 12-4)
MMPI-A, adolescent version
A moving target!
MMPI in Iceland? Sounds like they used the same norms as the USA
One's culture shapes their world view and identity (acculturation)
As do ones values and identity
Presents unique and difficult situation for constructing tests
What can we do to prevent this and how might it manifest itself on a personality assessment?