Human

Personality
Ch 12
Personality assessment

Psychologists use interviews, observation,

questionnaires, and projective tests to assess
personality.
 Interviews
A face to face meeting held for the purpose of gaining
information about an individual`s personal history,
personality traits, current psychological state and so
forth.
 Interviews
Types of interviews:
1- unstructured interview
An interview in which conversation is informal and
topics are taken up freely as they arise.
2- Structured interview
An interview that follows a prearranges plan, usually a
series of planned questions.
Computerized interviews
Are types of structured interviews, and based on a
specific series of questions.
 Interviews
What interview provides?
• Information for counselor or therapist
• make it possible to observe a person`s tone of voice,
hand gesture, posture, and facial expressions.
• Give rapid insight into personality.
 Interviews
Interview limitations
• Interviews can be swayed by preconceptions.
• An interviewers own personality, or even gender,
may affect client`s behavior.
• People sometimes try to device interviewers.
• The Halo effect “ the tendency to generalize a
favorable or unfavorable first impression to un
related details of personality.
 Direct observation and Rating scales

observation
Assessing behavior through direct surveillance.
Limitation
it would be subjective, so
 Rating scale is one of the solutions
( is a list of personality traits or aspects of behavior
that can be used to evaluate a person)
 Behavioral assessment by counting the frequency of
specific behaviors.
 Situational testing
Personality Questionnaires

Are paper-and-pencil tests that reveal personality

Characteristics.
- Questionnaires are more objective than interviews or
observation
Objective test “gives the same score when different
people correct it”, “ questions, administration, and
scoring are all standardized”
- Validity
- Reliability
 Personality Questionnaires

Limitations:
- Are all personality characteristics able to be
simplified in written item?
- The personal understanding to the written item.
 Projective tests of personality

Psychological tests making use of ambiguous or

unstructured stimuli
- In the projective test a person is asked to describe ambiguous or
unstructured stimuli to make up stories about them.

- Everyone sees something different in a projective test, and what is

perceived can reveal the inner workings of personality.

- Projective tests have no right or wrong answers, which makes them

difficult to fake.
 Projective tests of personality

Limitations:
- Although projective tests have been popular, their
validity is considered lowest among tests of
personality.
- Objectivity and reliability are also low for different
users of the TAT and Rorschach.
-
 Understanding Shyness

Shyness is:

A tendency to avoid
others, Plus Uneasiness
and strain when socializing
 Elements of Shyness

1- Lack Social skills

( Proficiency at interacting with others).

2- Social anxiety
(a feeling of apprehension in the presence of others).

3- self-defeating bias
(shy persons almost always blame themselves when a
social encounter doesn`t go well).
Dynamics of the Shy
Personality

Shyness is linked to Public self-consciousness

(acute awareness of one-self as a social object)
Persons who are high in public self-consciousness
are:
• intensely concerned about what
others think of them.
Dynamics of the Shy
Personality

• Worry about saying the wrong thing or

appear foolish.

• They may feel “naked” or as if others could

see through them, which triggers
anxiety during social encounter.
Dynamics of the Shy
Personality

shy person Not Shy person

Shyness become a part Believe that external
of their self-concept situations cause their
occasional feelings of shyness

Giving themselves a label Assume that almost anyone

of being anxious would feel as they do
under the same situation
Blame themselves for social
failures, never give Give themselves credit for
themselves credit for success, their social success and
and expect to be rejected recognize that failures are
often due to circumstances
Shy beliefs

Shyness is often maintained by or self-defeating beliefs.

Here is a sample of such beliefs:

1. If you wait around long enough at a social gathering,

something will happen.
2. Other people who are popular are just lucky when it
comes to being invited to social events
Shy beliefs

3. The odds of meeting someone interested in

socializing are always the same, no matter where I
am.

4. If someone doesn`t seem to like you right away , they

really don`t like you and never will.
 Alternatives to shy
beliefs

1. I`ve to be active in social situation.

2. I can`t wait until I'm completely relaxed or

comfortable before taking social risk.

3. I don`t need to pretend to be someone I`m not.

4. I may think other people are harshly evaluating me,

but actually I`m being too hard on myself.

 Alternatives to shy
beliefs

5. I can set reasonable goals for expanding my social

experience and skill.

6. Even people who are very socially skillful are never

successful 100 percent of the time.

Social skills

There is nothing “innate” about knowing how to

meet people or start a conversation.
Social skills can be directly practiced in variety of
ways.
• record and listen to several of your conversations.
• Look at yourself in a mirror and exaggerate facial
expressions of Surprise, interest, dislike, pleasure,
and so forth.
• Asking open ended questions