the visible aspect of one's personality as it impresses others

The unique, relatively enduring internal and external aspects of a person's character that influence behavior in different situations

Self-report or objective inventories

Projective techniques

Clinical interviews

Behavioral Assessment Procedures

Thought-Sampling and Experience-Sampling Procedures

a personality assessment technique where people are asked to report on themselves by answering questions about their behavior and feelings in various situations.

deal with symptoms, attitudes, beliefs, interests, fears, and values

Pros: can asses many facets of personality

- quick & easy, data can be subjected to reliability and validity tests

- most objective approach to personality assessment

Cons: not always appropriate for people with below average inteligence or limited reading skills.

- response alternatives offered can have huge influence (see bottom of pg15)

- social desirability

underlying theory= when we are presented with an ambiguous stimulus our unconcious will project our needs, fears, and values onto the stimulus

inkblot, word association, sentance completion, sandplay

widely used although interpretation of interview material is subjective and can be affected by the interviewer's theiretical orientation and personality

Valuable info can be obtained by talking to the person being evaluated and asking relevant questions about past and presant life experiences, social and family relationships, and the problems that led the person to seek psychological help.

A wide range of feelings and thoughts can be investigaed in the interview, including general appearance, demeanor, and attitude; facial expressions, postue and gestures preocupations, degree of self insight, and level of contact with reality

a more systematic approach than clinical intervews...

A trained observer evaluates a person's behavior in a given situation.

the better the observer knows the person, the more accurate the assessment is likely to be

a person records their thoughts systematically to provide a sample ...since thoughts ar eso private and can't be seen, the only person who can make this type of observation is the individual whose thoughts are being studied....so the observer and the observed are the same person

Experience Sampling Method: participants asked 2 also describe the social & environmental context in which the experience being sampled occurs...goal= to determine how one's thoughts or moods may be influenced by the context in which they occur

primary clinical method =the case study/case history- search patient's past and present for clues that might point to the source of the patients emotional problems...like a mini bio of a person's emotional life

Other clinical methods: tests, interviews, & dream analysis

clinical method tries to be scientific, doesn't offer the precision & control of the experimental & correlational methods...more subjective may reflect therapist's biases & reported memories are unreliable

- Objective

- Controlled & systematic

- can duplicate and verify

researcher manipulates the independent variable that has at least 2 (sometimes more) categories/levels. RANDOM ASSIGNMENT of research participants. Cause and effect statements can be made.

- cannot be used to study many things for ethical and safety reasons

- subject's behavior may change just because they are aware that they're being watched/evaluated... try to guess the purpose and try to either help or hinder

measures the degree of the relationship between 2  variables...represented by the correlation coeficient (tells us the strength and dirrection of the relationship)

EX: is birth order related to agressiveness? Do pple who score high in need for achievement earn higher grades in college?

Reliability and validity of assessment devices are typically determined through the correlation method

Can help predict behavior in the real world

Main Limitation: doesn't tell us cause & effect; just b/c 2 variables show a high correlation, doesn't mean that one caused the other

Informal vs. Formal

theories/approaches to assessing personality

we all use informal theories in everyday interactions...we form ideas about the personalities of others, we have ideas about human nature in general (whether pple are basically good or bad)

based on limited # of less diverse pple (family, friends, selves)

we tend to interpret the actions of others in terms of what we would do/how we'd feel ...we tend to cling to our personal theories- only paying attention to things that confirm it

Formal:

based on data gathered from large # of diverse pple so we can generalize more effectively

more objective, subjected to many experimental tests