Summary of What are personality assessment methods? - Chapter 12 - Cohen - 2018.

When assessing an individual's personality you can use a lot of different personality assessing methods. The methods commonly used will be discussed below.

What are objective methods of personality assessment?

Objective methods of personality assessment are often administered by paper-and-pencil means or by computer, and they usually contain short-answer items for which the assessee's task is to select one response from the two or more provided. You can't score a correct or incorrect score, but the response on an objective personality test is scored with reference to either the personality characteristic(s) being measured or the validity of the respondent's pattern of response. Objective items can usually be scored quickly and reliably by varied means, from hand scoring to computer scoring. Analysis and interpretation of such tests may be almost as fast as scoring especially if conducted by computer and custom software.

The scoring of objective, multiple-choice tests of ability left little room for emotion, bias or favoritism on the part of the test scorer. The extent to which these test results will be viewed as 'objective' is inextricably linked to one's view about the validity of psychoanalytic theory, and more specifically, the construct oedipal conflict. This can lead to the lack of objectivity that can be associated with using a self-report questionnaire.

What are behavioral assessment methods?

Traits, states, motives, needs, drives, defenses and related psychological constructs have no tangible existence. They are construct whose existence must be inferred from behavior. The emphasis on a behavioral assessment is on 'what a person does in situations rather than on inferences about what attributes he has more globally'. Predicting what a person will do is thought to entail an understanding of the assessee with respect to both antecedent conditions and consequences of a particular situation.

What holds the Who, When, Where, Why and How of it?

Who? Who is the assessee? The person being assessed may be a patient on a closed psychiatric ward, a client seeking help at a counseling center, or a subject in an academic experiment. Who is the assessor? Depending on the circumstances, the assessor may be highly qualified professional or a technician/assistant trained to conduct a particular assessment.

What? What is measured in behavioral assessment? Perhaps not surprisingly, the behavior is the target of the assessment.

When? When is the assessment of behavior made? One response to this question is that assessment of behavior is typically made at times when the problem behavior is most likely to be elicited. Another way to address the when question has to do with the various schedules with which behavioral assessment may be made. Each time the targeted behavior occurs, it is recorded. One method of recording the frequency and intensity of target behavior is timeline followback (TLFB) methodology. A feature of TLFB is that respondents are prompted with memory aids to assist in recall of the targeted behavior during the defined timeline. Another assessment methodology entails recording problem behavior-related events not retrospectively, but as they occur. This is accomplished by means of a handheld computer used to maintain an electronic diary of behavior, referred to as ecological momentary assessment.

Where? Where does the assessment take place? In contrast to psychological tests, behavioral assessment may take place just about anywhere, preferably in the environment where the targeted behavior is most likely to occur naturally.

Why? Why would one conduct behavioral assessment? Data derived from behavioral assessment may have several advantages over data derived by other means.

How? How is behavioral assessment conducted? The answer to this question will vary, according to the purpose of the assessment. Another key how question relates to the analysis of the data from behavioral assessment. The extent to which traditional psychometric standards are deemed applicable to behavioral assessment is a controversial issue, with two opposing camps. One camp may be characterized as accepting traditional psychometric assumptions about behavioral assessment, including assumptions about the measurement of reliability.

What are certain varieties of behavioral assessment?

There are multiple examples of the use of an assessment technique termed behavioral observation. Sometimes you need to use the video recording of an event to make sure you can see someone's behavior or ask about somebody's behavior when you both wat the video clip together. Behavioral observation may take many forms, such as the behavior rating scale. Behavior rating scales and systems may be categorized in different ways. Self-monitoring may be defined as the act of systematically observing and recording aspects of one's own behavior and/or events related to that behavior. Self-monitoring may be used to record specific thoughts, feelings or behaviors. Self-monitoring is both a tool of assessment and a tool of intervention. Reactivity refers to the possible changes in an assessee's behavior, thinking, or performance that may arise in response to being observed, assessed or evaluated.

What are analogue studies?

The behavioral approach to clinical assessment and treatment has been linked to a researcher's approach to experimentation. An analogue study is a research investigation in which one or more variables are similar or analogous to the real variable that the investigator wishes to examine. More specific than the term analogue study is analogue behavioral observation which may be defined as the observation of a person or persons in an environment designed to increase the chance that the assessor can observe targeted behaviors or interactions. Also a variety of environments have been designed to increase the assessor's chances of observing the targeted behavior.

What are situational performance measures?

A situational performance measure is a procedure that allows for observation and evaluation of an individual under a standard set of circumstances. The leaderless group technique is a situational assessment procedure wherein several people are organized into a group for the purpose of carrying out a task as an observer records information related to individual group members' initiative, cooperation, leadership and related variables.

The technique of role play or acting an improvised or partially improvised part in a simulated situation can be used in teaching, therapy and assessment. A therapist may use role play to help a feuding couple avoid harmful shouting matches and learn more effective methods of conflict resolution.

The search for clues to understanding and predicting human behavior has led researchers to the study of physiological parts of the body, such as heart rate and blood pressure. These and other indices are known to be influenced by psychological factors, that's also why we call them psychophysiological methods. Perhaps the best known of all psychophysiological methods used by psychologists is biofeedback. This is a generic term that may be defined broadly as a class of psychophysiological assessment techniques designed to gauge, display and record a continuous monitoring of selected biological processes such as pulse and blood pressure. The use of biofeedback with humans was inspired by reports that animals given rewards for exhibiting certain involuntary responses could successfully modify those responses.

The plethysmograph is a biofeedback instrument that records changes in the volume of a part of the body arising from variations in blood supply. A penile plethysmograph is also an instrument designed to measure changes in blood flow, but more specifically blood flow in the penis. In the public eye, the best-known of all psychophysiological measurement tools is what is commonly referred to as a lie detector or polygraph.

What are certain issues in behavioral assessment?

There must be an acceptable level of inter-rater reliability among behavior observers or raters. A behavioral rating may be excessively positive because a prior rating was excessively negative. This source of error is referred to as a contrast effect. To combat potential contrast effects and other types of rating error, rigorous training of raters is necessary. Another approach to minimizing error and improving inter-rater reliability among behavioral raters is to employ a composite judgement, which is, in essence, an averaging of multiple judgements.