Educational Psychology 590U

Personality Assessment

Spring 2008 (Seminar: Weds 2-5)

 

 

Instructor:   James Rounds                                       

                   188R Education                          

                   jrounds@uiuc.edu                                   

 

Office Hours:  Weds 1-2

 

 

Course Overview

 

      The course is intended to be:  an examination of the history, models, research bases, issues and controversies, and strategies used in the assessment of personality; and a supervised practicum in scoring, and interpretation of personality measures with a focus on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and normal personality inventories and their diagnostic uses.

      The course will include lecture, discussion, and supervised practice.  The didactic aspect will examine methods of assessment and research and current issues surrounding the practice of personality measurement.  The laboratory component will include practice in the administration and scoring of personality measures, and case presentations.  The objectives of the course are for student to learn: techniques of data collection in personality assessment, prediction models in personality assessment, personality theory as assessment models, and personality test interpretation.

 

The following measures and procedures are covered:

 

California Psychological Inventory

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Rorschach

NEO Personality Inventory

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

 

Course Structure

 

Seminar. The seminar will consist of student presentations, and discussion.  Each week, three or more people will be assigned to lead the discussion on articles.  But all students should come to class ready to discuss any or all of the assigned readings.  The instructor will also provide overviews of the readings and comments on particularly important issues.  Class discussions and presentations will be an important supplement to the reading, and your participation will affect your course grade.

 

Course Requirements

 

·         Participate in class discussion and present summaries of the readings, as assigned. Your participation in class discussions and presentation critiques is valued, appreciated and required. To facilitate discussion, each student is responsible for generating comments and critiques on the readings for that week and posting these comments on the course the night before class (no later than midnight).  It is the discussant’s responsibility to collate these comments and bring copies to class for discussion. 

 

·         Write 2-3 personality assessment reports or a research paper/proposal or a test review.

 

·         Self-administer the MMPI, NEO, and CPI and write an interpretation or have a classmate write the interpretation.

 

·         Present in class an interpretation of a personality assessment protocol or your research paper/proposal or test review.

 

 

Your final grade will be based on personality assessment reports or research paper (20%) and successful completion of the case presentation or research proposal (20%) and class participation (60%).  Assessment reports will be graded:  unsatisfactory, does not meet minimal requirements (S‑), satisfactory, meets minimal requirements (+), and excellent, meets minimal requirements and demonstrates better than standard interpretive skills (++).

 

Lab/Practicum. The lab focuses on hands-on practice using personality measures. It will include the presentation and discussion of measures and protocols, student presentations of other measures and case presentations. The practical aspect is integrated with the more research-academic aspects of personality assessment. For example, when the empirical paradigm is discussed, we will also discuss the MMPI.

 

 

Text

 

Wiggins, J.  (2003). Paradigms of personality assessment. New York: Guilford Press.

 

 

Reference Texts and Manuals

 

American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.

American Psychological Association (1999).  Standards for educational and psychological testing.  Washington, DC.

 

Block, J.  The Q-sort method in personality assessment and psychiatric research.  Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press (pp. 3 – 46).

 

Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J. R., Tellegen, A. M., & Kaemmer, B. (2001).   MMPI-2:  Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation, Revised Edition.  Minneapolis, MN:  University of Minnesota Press.

 

Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO PI-R: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

 

Greene, R. L. (2000). MMPI: An interpretive manual (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

 

Gough, H. G. (1987/1996).  California Psychological Inventory:  Manual.  Palo Alto, CA:  Consulting Psychologist Press.

 

Graham, J. R. (2000).  The MMPI-2:  Assessing personality and psychopathology ( 3rd ed.).  New York:  Oxford University Press.

 

McAllister, L. W. (1996).  A practical guide to CPI interpretation ( 3rd ed.).  Palo Alto, CA:  Consulting Psychologist Press.

 

 

Readings

 

      The readings for the course are indicated on the accompanying course syllabus (required readings are in bold).  Each week’s readings are listed in approximately the order in which related topics will be considered in class.  A copy of the required readings will be made available in Psychology library and Education.  Many of the readings can be downloaded from the UIUC library.

 

 

 

 


WORKING SYLLABUS

Seminar

Personality Assessment

EDPSY 590U Spring 2008

James Rounds

 

 

January 16

 

Course Introduction and Overview (No readings)

 

January 23

 

Brief History of Assessment

Personality Assessment and Personality Theory

Traits

 

(Overview, Importance, History)

 

Harkness, A. R., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (1997). Individual difference science for treatment planning: Personality traits. Psychological Assessment, 9, 349-360. pdf

 

Hofstee, W. K. B.  (1994).  Who should own the definition of personality?  European Journal of Personality, 8, 149-162. pdf

 

Lubinski, D.  (2000). Scientific and social significance of assessing individual differences:  Sinking shafts at a few critical points.  Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 405-444. pdf

 

Meyer, G. J., Finn, S. E., Eyde, L. D., Kay, G. G., Moreland, K. L., Dies, R. R., Eisman, E. J., Kubiszyn, T. W., & Reed, G. M.  (2001).  Psychological testing and psychological assessment.  American Psychologist, 56, 128-165. pdf

 

Ozer, D. J., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology. pdf

 

DuBois, P. H. (1966).  A test-dominated society: China 1115 B.C.-1905 A.D.  In A. Anastasi (Ed.), Testing problems in perspective (pp. 29-36).  Washington, DC: American Council on Education. pdf

 

 

(Traits: Classic Viewpoints)

 

Allport, G. W. (1958).  What units shall we employ?  In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Assessment of human motives (pp. 239-260).  New York:  Rinehart. pdf

 

Murray, H. A. (1958).  Drive, time, strategy, measurement, and our way of life.  In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Assessment of human motives (pp. 183-196).  New York:  Rinehart. pdf

 


(Traits)

 

Harkness, A. R., & Hogan, R.  (1995). The theory and measurement of traits: Two views.  In J. N. Butcher (Ed.) Clinical personality assessment: practical approaches (pp. 28 – 41).  New York: Oxford University Press. pdf

 

Tellegen, A.  (1991).  Personality traits: Issues of definition, evidence, and assessment.  In W. M. Grove & D. Cicchetti (Eds.), Thinking clearly about psychology: Personality and psychopathology (Vol. II, pp. 10-35).  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pdf

 

(Types)

 

Strube, M. J. (1989).  Evidence for the Type in Type A Behavior:  A taxometric analysis.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 972-987. pdf

 

 

January 30

 

Construct Validity

 

(Classical articles and Reflections)

 

Campbell, D. T. & Fiske, D. W. (1959).  Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix.  Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81-105. pdf

 

Fiske, D. W., & Campbell, D. T.  (1992).  Citations do not solve problems.  Psychological Bulletin, 112, 393-395. pdf

 

Cronbach, L. J. & Meehl, P. E. (1955).  Construct validity in psychological tests.  Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281-302. pdf

 

Cronbach, L. J.  (1992).  Four Psychological Bulletin articles in perspective.  Psychological Bulletin, 112, 389-392. pdf

 

(Applications and extensions and discussions)

 

Embretson (Whitely), S.  (1983).  Construct validity: Construct representation versus nomothetic span.  Psychological Bulletin, 93, 179-197. pdf

 

Hogan, R. & Nicholson, R. A. (1988).  The meaning of personality test scores.  American Psychologist, 43, 621-626. pdf

 

Messick, S.  (1995). Validity of psychological assessment: Validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning.  American Psychologist, 50, 741-749. pdf

 

Diener, E. & Eid, M. (2006). The finale: Take-home messages from the editor. In Eid, M. & Diener, E.  (Eds.).  Handbook of Psychological Assessment: A Multimethod PerspectiveWashington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pdf

 


February 6

 

Tradition test Construction

 

Saucier, G., & Goldberg, L. R.  (in press).  Assessing the Big Five: Applications of 10 psychometric criteria to the development of marker scales.  In B. De Raad & M. Perugini (Eds.),  Big Five Assessment.  Hogrefe & Huber. pdf

 

Clark, L. A., & Watson, D.  (1995).  Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development.  Psychological Assessment, 7, 309-319. pdf

 

Werner, P. D., & Pervin, L. A. (1986).  The content of personality inventory items. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 51, 622-628. pdf

 

(Social desirability in scale construction)

 

Ellingson, J. E., Sackett, P. R., Hough, L. M. (1999).  Social desirability corrections in personality measurement: Issues of applicant comparison and construct validity.  Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 155-166. pdf

 

(Reliability)

 

Schmitt, N. (1996). Uses and abuses of coefficient Alpha. Psychological Assessment, 8, 350-353. pdf

 

(Validity scales)

 

Piedmont, R.L., McCrae, R. R., Riemann, R., & Angleitner A.  (2000).  On the invalidity of validity scales: Evidence from self-reports and observer ratings in volunteer samples.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 582-593. pdf

 

(Deception)

 

Paulhus, D. L. (1986).  Self-deception and impression management in test responses.  In A. Angleitner and J. S. Wiggins (Eds.), Personality assessment via questionnaires:  Current issues in theory and measurement (pp. 141-165).  Berlin:  Springer-Verlag. pdf

 

February 13

Paradigms of assessment: Psychodynamic

 

Wiggins, J.  (2003). Paradigms of personality assessment. New York: Guilford Press.  Read Introduction, Chapters 1 pdf, 7 pdf, & 8 pdf

 

Garb, H. N., Wood, J. M., Lilenfeld, S. O., Nezworski, M. T. (2005). Roots of the Rorschach controversy. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 97-118. pdf

 

Lilienfeld, S. O., Wood, J. M., & Garb, H. N. (2000). Scientific status of projective techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 1 (2),  (Whole). pdf

 

 

February 20

 

Paradigms of assessment: Interpersonal

 

Wiggins, J. (2003).  Chapters 2 pdf & 9 pdf

 

Plutchik, R. (1997).  The circumplex as a general model of the structure of emotions and personality (Epilogue: The future of the circumplex).  In R. Plutchik & H. R. Conte (Eds.), Circumplex models of personality and emotions (pp. 17-46, 447-457).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. pdf

 

Gurtman, M. B. (1992).  Construct validity of interpersonal personality measures:  The interpersonal circumplex as a nomological net.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 105-118. pdf

 

Hofstee, W. K. B., de Raad, B., & Goldberg, L. R. (1992).  Integration of the big five and circumplex approaches to trait structure.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 146-163. pdf

 

Jackson, D. N., & Helmes, E.  (1979).  Personality structure and the circumplex.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 2278-2285. pdf

 

Wiggins, J. S., Trapnell, P., & Phillips, N.  (1988).  Psychometric and geometric characteristics of the Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS-R).  Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23, 119-134. pdf

 

Wiggins, J. S. (1979).  A psychological taxonomy of trait-descriptive terms:  The interpersonal domain.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 395-412. pdf

 

 

 

February 27

 

Paradigms of assessment: Personological

 

Wiggins, J. (2003).  Chapter 3 pdf

 

Runyan, W. M.  (1997).  Studying lives: Psychobiography and the conceptual structure of personality psychology. In Hogan, R., Johnson, J. A., & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology. (pp. 41-69). San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Inc.  pdf

 

Stokes, G. S., Mumford, M. D., & Owens, W. A.  (1989).  Life history prototypes in the study of human individuality.  Journal of Personality, 57, 509-545. pdf

 

McAdams, D. P.  (1996).  Personality, moderity, and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons.  Psychological Inquiry, 7, 295-321.  (Also, read commentaries response to commentaries) pdf

 

See Commentaries: D. J. Ozer pdf, R. R. McCrae pdf, J. T. Lamiell & S. C. Weigert pdf and more

 

McAdams, D. P.  (1995).  What do we know when we know a person?  Journal of Personality, 63, 365-396. pdf

 

 

 

March 5

 

Paradigms of personality assessment: Multivariate

 

Wiggins, J. (2003).  Chapter 4 pdf & 10 pdf

 

Benet, V., Waller, N. G.  (1995). The Big Seven factor model of personality description: Evidence for its cross-cultural generality in a Spanish sample.  Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,  69, 701-718. pdf

 

Jackson, D. N. (1971).  The dynamics of structured personality tests:  1971.  Psychological Review, 78, 229-248. pdf

 

McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr.  (1997).  Personality trait structure as a human universal.  American Psychologist., 52, 509-516. pdf

 

Paunonen, S. V., Jackson, D. N., Trzebinski, J. & Forsterling, F. (1992).  Personality structure across cultures:  A multimethod evaluation.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 447-456. pdf

 

March 12

Traits and culture

Terracciano, A., et. al. (2005). National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures. Science, 310, 96-100. pdf supporting materials pdf

Robins, R. W. (2005). The nature of personality: Genes, culture, and national character. Science, 310, 62-63. pdf

Saucier, G.  (2003).  An alternative multi-language structure for personality attributes.   European Journal of Personality, 76, 179-205. pdf

 

 

March 26

 

Paradigms of personality assessment: Empirical

 

Wiggins, J.  (2003).  Chapters 5 pdf & 11 pdf

 

Meehl, P. E.  (1945).  The dynamics of "structured" personality tests.  Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1, 296-303. pdf

 

Meehl, P. E. (1972).  Reactions, reflections, projections.  In J. Butcher (Ed.), Objective personality assessment:  Changing perspectives (pp. 131-189).  New York:  Academic Press. pdf

 

Nagayama, G. C., Bansal, A., & Lopez, I. R. (1999). Ethnicity and psychopathology: A meta-analytic review of 31 years of comparative MMPI/MMPI-2 research. Psychological Assessment, 11, 186-197. pdf

 

 

April 2

 

Comparison of test construction strategies

      Methods

            rational

            factor analytic

            criterion keying

            comparison of methods

 

(Strategies of personality test construction)

 

Burisch, M. (1984).  Approaches to personality inventory construction:  A comparison of merits.  American Psychologist, 39, 214-227. pdf

 

Hase, H. D., & Goldberg, L. R. (1967).  The comparative validity of different strategies of deriving personality inventory scales.  Psychological Bulletin, 67, 231-248. pdf

 

(Reflection)

 

Wolfe, R. N. (1993). A commonsense approach to personality measurement. In K. H. Craik, R. Hogan, and R. N. Wolfe (eds.), Fifty years of personality psychology. New York: Plenum Press. pdf

 

(IRT)

 

Waller, N. G., Thompson, J. S., & Werk, E. (2000). Using IRT to separate measurement bias from true group differences on homogeneous and heterogeneous scales: An illustration with the MMPI. Psychological Methods, 5, 125-146. pdf

 

Zickar, M. J.  (2001).  Conquering the Next Frontier:  Modeling Personality Data with Item Response Theory. In B.W. Roberts & R. Hogan (Eds.), Personality psychology in the workplace.Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pdf

 

 

April 9

 

Prediction Models

 

Dawes, R. M., Faust, D., & Meehl, P. E. (1989).  Clinical versus actuarial judgement.  Science, 243, 1668-1674. pdf

 

Grove, W. M., & Meehl, P. E. (1996). Comparative efficiency of informal (subjective, impressionistic) and formal (mechanical, algorithmic) prediction procedures: The clinical-statistical controversy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 2, 293-323. pdf

 

Grove, W. M., et al. (2000). Clinical versus mechanical prediction: A meta-analysis. Psychological Assessment, 12, 19-30. pdf

 

Kleinmutz, B. (1990).  Why we still use our heads instead of formulas:  Toward an integrative approach.  Psychological Bulletin, 107, 296-310. pdf

 

McCauley, C. (1991).  Selection of National Science Foundation graduate fellows:  A case study of psychologists failing to apply what they know about decision making.  American Psychologist, 46, 1287-1291. pdf

 

Sawyer, J.  (1966).  Measurement and prediction: Clinical and statistical.  Psychological Bulletin, 66, 178-200. pdf

 

 (Decisions: Importance of base rates)

 

Meehl, P. E. & Rosen, A. (1955).  Antecedent probability and the efficiency of psychometric signs, patterns and cutting scores.  Psychological Bulletin, 52, 194-216. pdf

 

Swets, J. A., Dawes, R. M., & Monahan, J. (2000).  Psychological science can improve diagnostic decisions. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 1 (1), (Whole). pdf

 

Presentations

 

 

April 16

 

Personality stability and change

 

Caspi, A..  (1993). Why maladaptive behaviors persist: Sources of continuity and change across the life course (pp. 343-376).  In D. C. Funder, R.. D. Parke, C. Tomlinson-Keasey, & K. Widaman (Eds.), Studying lives through time: Personality and development.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. pdf

 

Conley, J. J.  (1984). Longitudinal consistency of personality: Self-reported psychological characteristics across 45 years.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1325-1333. pdf

 

Helson, R.  (1993). Comparing longitudinal studies of adult development: Toward a paradigm of tension between stability and change (pp. 93-119).  In D. C. Funder, R.. D. Parke, C. Tomlinson-Keasey, & K. Widaman (Eds.), Studying lives through time: Personality and development.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. pdf

 

Low, K. S. D., Yoon, M., Roberts, B. W., & Rounds, J. (2005). The stability of interests from early adolescence to middle adulthood: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 713-737. pdf

 

Roberts, B. W., DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). The rank-order consistence of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 3-25. pdf

 

Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. & Viechtbauer, W.  (2006).  Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 3-27.  (also, read replies) pdf1, pdf2

 

Presentations

 

 

April 23

 

Limits of self-report assessment

 

Henry, B., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Langley, J., & Silva, P. A.  (1994). On the “remembrance of things past”: A longitudinal evaluation of the retrospective method.  Psychological Assessment, 6, 92-101. pdf

 

Lucas, R. E., & Baird, B. M. (2006). Global self assessment. In Eid, M. & Diener, E.  (Eds.).  Handbook of Psychological Assessment: A Multimethod PerspectiveWashington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pdf

 

Johnson, J. A.  (1981). The “self-disclosure” and “self-presentation” views of item response dynamics and personality scale validity.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 761-769. pdf

 

Schwarz, N.  (1999).  Self-reports: How the question shapes the answer.  American Psychologist, 54, 93-105. pdf

 

Presentations

 

 

April 30

 

Presentations