Types and Problems of Personality Testing

Types and Problems of Personality Testing Theories Personality Psychology Print How Personality Testing Is Used in Psychology By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Reviewed by Reviewed by Amy Morin, LCSW on November 29, 2019 facebook twitter instagram Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, author of the bestselling book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Dont Do, and a highly sought-after speaker. Learn about our Wellness Board Amy Morin, LCSW Updated on January 14, 2020 Judi Ashlock / Getty Images More in Theories Personality Psychology Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Social Psychology Biological Psychology Psychosocial Psychology Personality testing and assessment refer to techniques that are used to accurately and consistently measure personality.?? Personality tests can be used to help furthur clarify a clinical diagnosis, to guide therapeutic interventions, and to help predict how people may respond in different situations. Personality is something that we informally assess and describe every day. When we talk about ourselves and others, we frequently refer to different characteristics of an individuals personality. Psychologists do much the same thing when they assess personality but on a much more systematic and scientific level. How Are Personality Tests Used? Personality tests are administered for a number of different purposes, including: For assessing theoriesTo look at changes in personalityTo evaluate the effectiveness of therapyDiagnosing psychological problemsScreening job candidates?? Personality tests are also sometimes used in forensic settings to conduct risk assessments, establish competence and in child custody disputes.?? Types of Personality Assessment There are two basic types of personality tests: self-report inventories and projective tests. Self-report inventories involve having test-takers read questions and then rate how well the question or statement applies to them.?? One of the most common self-report inventories is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or MMPI.Projective tests involve presenting the test-taker with a vague scene, object, or scenario and then asking them to give their interpretation of the test item. One well-known example of a projective test is the Rorschach Inkblot Test.?? What Can a Personality Test Tell You? Personality tests can be useful for a number of reasons. These tests can help you learn more about yourself and better understand both your strengths and weaknesses. While all personality tests are different, learning that you might be high on a specific trait can help you gain greater insight into your own behavioral patterns. For example, your results on a personality test might indicate that you rate high on the personality trait of introversion. This result suggests that you have to expend energy in social situations, so you need to find time alone to recharge your energy. Knowing that you have this tendency can help you recognize when you are getting drained from socializing and set aside quiet moments to regain your equilibrium. Potential Problems With Personality Testing Each of these approaches has its own unique set of strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. The greatest benefit of self-report inventories is that they can be standardized and use established norms. Self-inventories are also relatively easy to administer and have much higher reliability and validity than projective tests. One of the biggest disadvantages of self-report inventories is that it is possible for people to engage in deception when answering questions. Even though techniques can be used to detect deception, people can still successfully provide false answers often in an effort to fake good or appear more socially acceptable and desirable.?? Another potential problem is that people are not always good at accurately describing their own behavior.?? People tend to overestimate certain tendencies (especially ones that are viewed as socially desirable) while underestimating other characteristics. This can have a serious impact on the accuracy of a personality test. Self-report personality tests can also be quite long, in some cases taking several hours to complete. Not surprisingly, respondents can quickly become bored and frustrated. When this happens, test-takers will often answer questions as quickly as possible, often without even reading the test items. Projective tests are most often used in psychotherapy settings and allow therapists to quickly gather a great deal of information about a client. For example, a therapist can look not only at the clients response to a particular test item; they can also take into account other qualitative information such as the clients tone of voice and body language. All of this can be explored in greater depth as the client progresses through therapy sessions. However, projective tests also have a number of disadvantages and limitations. The first problem lies in the interpretation of the responses. Scoring test items are highly subjective and different raters might provide entirely different viewpoints of the responses.?? These tests also tend to lack both reliability and validity. Remember, reliability refers to the consistency of a test while validity involves whether the test is really measuring what it claims to measure.?? Is Personality Testing Scientific or Entertaining? As you start looking at all of the different personality assessments that are available, you will probably notice one thing quite quickly: there are a lot of informal tests out there! Just a simple online search will turn up an enormous range of quizzes and tests designed to tell you something about your personality. Lets make one thing clearâ€"the vast majority of these quizzes that youll encounter online are just for fun. They can be entertaining and they might even give you a little insight into your personality, but they are in no way formal, scientific assessments of personality.   How Projective Tests Are Used to Measure Personality