Psychological

Assessment
Projective Personality Tests

Projective Tests: Essential

Features

Individuals must impose their own structure

which is meaningful
Stimulus material is unstructured
Indirect (disguised) method
Freedom of response
Interpretation is broad

Projective Tests

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Thematic Apperception Test

Rorschach Inkblot Test

Hermann Rorschach (18841922)

Nicknamed Kleck or
inkblot
Talented art student who
decided to study science
Dream convinced him of
relationship between
perception and unconscious
1921 published
Psychodiagnostik
Died in 1922

Rorschach
Inkblot
Test

Rorschach: Historical
5 Scoring Systems
Adopted by 5 American psychologists with
very different theoretical backgrounds
Shared common features (same blots were
used, response phase followed by inquiry)
5 different systems of administration, scoring
and interpretation emerged
Two most popular (Beck, Klopf)

Rorschach: Validity and

Reliability
Poor psychometric reputation:
Lack of standardized rules for administration
and scoring
Poor inter-rater reliability
Lack of adequate norms
Unknown or weak validity

Rorschach: Contemporary
Use

John Exner
Established Rorschach Research Foundation
in 1986
Integrated five scoring and interpretation
systems
Established empirical support for new system
Provide a center for training

Contemporary Use:
Administration
Association Phase
What might this be?

Present all the cards

Record response verbatim
Note location of response

Inquiry Phase
I want you to help me see what
you saw. Im going to read
what you said, and then I
want you to show me where
on the blot you saw it and
what there is there that
makes it look like that so
that I can see it too. Id like
to see it just like you did, so
help me now.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A psychometrically sound test?

An in-class exercise

Contemporary Use: Scoring

Exner scoring system: The Structural Summary
Location
Location (W, D, Dd)
Use of white space (S)
Determinants
Form (good, poor, bad quality)
Movement (active and passive)
Color
Texture
Shading

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A psychometrically sound test?

Particularly useful in assessing thought
processes

Thematic Apperception Test

(TAT)

Developed by Henry Murray and colleagues

at Harvard Psychological Clinic
31 TAT cards depicting people in a variety of
ambiguous situations (one blank card)
Examinee is asked to create a story about
each picture

TAT: Administration

Now I want you to make up a story about

each of these pictures. Tell me who the
people are, what they are doing, what they
are thinking or feeling, what led up to the
scene, and how it will turn out.

TAT: Scoring/Interpretation

Content analysis of themes that emerge from

the stories

TAT: Psychometric Critique

Selection of cards is not standardized

Lack of norms
Clinicians rely on qualitative impressions

Thematic Apperception Test

Used to assess:
Locus of problems
Nature of needs
Quality of interpersonal relationships

Psychological
Assessment cont.
Objective Personality Testing

What is Personality?
characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling,
and acting
emerges in informal, familiar situations in
which we feel unconstrained
principle of aggregation

personality is the sum of the best descriptors and

predictors of our actions over time in a number of
situations

Objective Personality Tests

Material Covered

4 major approaches to test construction

Examples of test based on first three test
construction procedures
Use of personality tests in modern clinical
practice

Characteristics Objective
Personality Tests

Standard set of questions

Standardization as a concept: given to large #'s

of people--yield norms to which an individual's
scores can be compared
Norms are defined as a set of scores from a large
group of people who have completed the
measure.

Fixed response options

Objective Personality Tests:

Advantages

Individual or groups (economical)

Administration is simple/objective
Scoring is simple/objective
Interpretation of results requires less
interpretative skill than projective tests
Apparent increased objectivity and reliability

Objective Personality Tests:

Disadvantages

Items limited to behavior

Single overall score
Transparent meaning of items
Forced choice approach

Test Construction
Approaches

Logical or content validation

Empirical Criterion Keying (MMPI)
Factor Analysis (NEO Personality Inventory)
Construct Validity (Combines all of the above)

Approaches to Test
Construction: Content
Validation

Defining all aspects of the construct

Consulting experts about the constructs
Having expert judges assess each potential
item
Perform psychometric analyses of items

Content Validation: An
Example
Goal: Construct a test designed to measure
attitudes toward school
Answer true or false
I enjoy getting up in the morning for school
I like my teacher(s)
I enjoy seeing my friends at school
I enjoy the subjects I learn about at school

Content Validation: Advantages

and Disadvantages
Advantages

Disadvantages

Face validity with test

takers

Easy to fake good or bad

Content Validation: The Mooney

Problem Checklist
Assesses emotional functioning in the following areas:

Home and family

Interpersonal relationships
Courtship and marriage
Morals an religion
School/occupation
Economic security
social skills and recreation
Health and physical development

Approaches to Test
Construction:
Empirical Keying

Create test items to measure one or more

traits
Administer test items to a criterion and
control group
Select items that distinguish between these
two groups
Content of the item is not considered
important

Empirical Keying: Minnesota

Multiphasic Inventory (MMPI)

Developed in 1930s
Starke Hathaway Ph.D. & J. Charnley McKinley,
MD.
Needed test to identify diagnosis
Developed an item pool
Identified a group of patients and nonpatients
Resulting scale of 550 items (true/false/cannot say)

MMPI Clinical Scales

Scale #

Scale Name

Meaning of High
Score

Hypochochodriasis

Concern about health

Depression

Depression

Hysteria

Somatic complaints
Denial of psych. prob.

Psychopathic Deviate

Antisocial behavior

Mas.-Fem

Nonstandard gender
interests

Paranoia

Suspiciousness

Psychasthenia

Anxiety

Schizophrenia

Disturbed thought

Hypomania

Manic mood

10

Social Introversion

Shy, social inept

MMPI: Validity Scales

? (Cannot say)
Unanswered items
L (Lie)
Faking good
F (Infrequency)
Faking bad
K (Defensiveness)
Defensiveness in admitting to problems

Interpreting MMPI

Validity Scales
Single scales
Profile analysis

MMPI: Shortcomings

Unrepresentative normative sample

Language of items was outdated (including
sexist language)
Inadequately addressed difficulties such as
suicide or drug use

MMPI: Revision

Assembled team of MMPI experts

Rewrote some items
Added new items
Administered new item pool (n=704) to a
standardization sample (representative)
Retained 567 items from the item pool

Continued problems

failure of some items to reliably discriminate

between groups
dimensions based on pre-conceived theory about
structure of personality,
scales correlate highly and thus provide
redundant information
they are highly influenced by state at the time of
taking, and the test and re-test stability may
therefore be lower than desired (a problem for
many/most trait measures)

MMPI-2 Content Scales

Anxiety
Fears
Obsessiveness
Depression
Health Concerns
Bizarre Thoughts
Anger
Cynicism

Antisocial Practices
Type A
Low Self-Esteem
Social Discomfort
Family Problems
Work Interference
Negative Treatment
Indicators

Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI):

more useful than the MMPI-2 for diagnosis

The purpose of the MCMI is to help the clinician
make a diagnosis of personality disorder.

These disorders are pervasive and stable patterns of

maladaptive behavior that are deeply ingrained and
influence the individual's thinking, feeling, and acting in a
wide range of situations.

The MCMI is primarily used for clinical populations;

it is not intended for normal subjects.

Approaches to Test Construction:

Factor Analysis (Internal
Consistency)

Correlational technique used to determine

whether a group of items are correlated with
one another

Revised NEO Personality

Inventory (NEO-PI-R)

Based on five factor model of personality

(Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness,
Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness)
Name derived from initials of the first three traits
Assesses all five traits
Emphasizes assessment of normal personality style
rather than psychopathology
Parallel forms

The Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive

Personality (SNAP)

a factor-analytically derived instrument designed to

assess traits important in personality disorders
15 scales:

12 trait scales assess specific or primary traits and

3 temperament scales measure more general affective
traits.

5 validity scales plus an overall validity index

items to assess the personality disorder criteria in
the DSM
follows the three-factor model of personality

Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality, Extraversion/Positive

Emotionality, and Disinhibition vs. Constraint.

Approaches to Test
Construction: Construct Validity

Combines aspects of content validity,

empirical criterion keying and factor analytic
approaches in developing assessment
devises (Clark and Watson, 1995)

The Place of Personality Assessment

in Contemporary Clinical
Psychology
Or

Why do we use these tests?

Psychological Assessment:
Purpose (Textbook Response)

Classification (diagnosis)
Description
Prediction

Classification

Results from psychological testing assists in

making a diagnosis
Critics of psych testing- tests are not reliable
or valid diagnostic instruments
Defenders: test information is used in
conjunction with other clinical data

Description

Dependent
Depressed Client

Testing
provides a
time efficient
means of
developing a
broader
understanding
of the patient.

Narcissistic
Depressed
Client

Prediction
Test findings can be used to make predictions
about behavior

Whether client will benefit from

psychotherapy
What type of psychotherapy would be best
Suicidal risk
Risk for violence

The Place of Personality Assessment

in Contemporary Clinical
Psychology
Or

Why do we use these tests?

Psychological Assessment: Purpose:

Typical Referral Question

Please evaluate for organic brain damage

(patient has history of polysubstance abuse)
and evaluate for psychotic thinking

Tests Administered
Evidence of Organic
Damage

Weschler Memory
Scale
Trail Making Test
Rey-Osterieth Complex
Figure Test
Benton Test of Visual
Memory

Evidence of Psychotic
Thought

MMPI
Rorschach
Beck Depression
Inventory

Interpretation of Results

Normal performance on tests of memory, concentration and

attention
Personality testing suggested the primary etiological role of
emotional turmoil.
Presence of both acute distress and chronic characterological
problems.
Acute distress: severe depression and a risk for suicide
Reality testing in the normal range
Significant ego regression when faced with affective arousal was
noted.

Projective and Objective Personality

Tests: Incremental Validity

Degree to which assessment increases

prediction based on base rates (prevalence)
or other sources

Incremental Validity: Current

Findings

Tentative support for the incremental validity of the MMPI-2

scales in prediction of personality disorder, aggression, and
differentiation between depressed patients and substance abuse
patients

NEO-PI-R: personality disorder, maternal responsiveness to

infants and violence

Rorschach: thought disorder but not other scores

TAT: not adequately investigated

Objective Tests: Summary

Material Covered

4 major approaches to test construction

Examples of test based on first three test
construction procedures
Use of personality tests in modern clinical
practice