Psychology 305 1

Psychology 305A: Theories of Personality

Lecture 2

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Scoring Your Questionnaire: BFT

In order to score your questionnaire, you must compute 5 scores.

Score 1: Sum items 1, 6, 11, 16, 21

Score 2: Sum items 2, 7, 12, 17, 22

Score 3: Sum items 3, 8, 13, 18, 23

Score 4: Sum items 4, 9, 14, 19, 24

Score 5: Sum items 5, 10, 15, 20, 25

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1. How is research used to test theories?

2. How is personality assessed?

3. How do researchers establish the reliability and validity of personality assessments?

Introductory Concepts and Personality Assessment

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By the end of today’s class, you should be able to:

1. define the term: operationalization.

2. generate examples of operationalizations.

3. discuss the interactive relationship between theory and research.

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5. distinguish between internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability.

4. review personality assessment techniques.

• Operationalization: The translation of a construct into a variable that can be observed and measured.

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• In order to test a theory, researchers must identify observable variables that reflect the constructs of interest.

How is research used to test theories?

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• Examples of operationalizations:

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Construct: Physical health.Operationalization: Heart rate, blood pressure.

Construct: Aggression.Operationalization: Frequency and intensity of shocks given to a confederate.

Construct: Intelligence.Operationalization: Scores on an IQ test.

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Construct: Self-esteem.Operationalization: ?

Theories

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Hypotheses

Operationalizations

Research (i.e., experiments, correlational studies, case studies)

Observations

InteractiveRelationship

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How is personality assessed?

• Personality is measured using:

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observer ratings (e.g., interviews, behavioural observations, informant data).

implicit assessments (e.g., Rorschach Ink Blot Test, Picture Story Exercise).

self-reports (most common; e.g., questionnaires).

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Implicit Assessment: Rorschach Ink Blot Test

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Psychology 305 11

Participants complete the statement “I am” 20 times.

Researchers count the number of statements that refer to a given personality characteristic.

Unstructured Self-Report: The Twenty-Statements Test

I am _______________I am _______________I am _______________I am _______________

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Psychology 305 12

True/false items: I like loud and crowded parties ………… T/FI enjoy trying new foods …………………. T/F

Adjective checklists: adventurous

conservative

Structured Self-Report: True/False Items and Adjective Checklists

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Using the scale below, please indicate how much you disagree or agree with the following statements. Circle the appropriate number to the right of each statement.

1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Neutral Strongly disagree agree

1. I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others …………………………….. 1 22. I feel that I have a number of good qualities …….. 1 23. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure …. 1 24. I am able to do things as well as most people …… 1 2

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Structured Self-Report: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

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• Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale:

Score by reversing “negatively-keyed” items and summing responses to 10 items.

Measures global feelings of self-worth.

Mean score for university undergraduates: 38, SD = 6.2.

Females tend to score slightly lower than males.

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How do researchers establish the reliability and validity of personality assessments?

• In order to accurately assess a given personality characteristic, the measure that is used must be reliable and valid.

Refers to the consistency with which a measure assesses a given construct across repeated measurements.

• Reliability

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Reliability is assessed in three ways.

1. Internal consistency:

• Relevant for multi-item measures (e.g., questionnaires).

• Reflects the degree to which the items that comprise the measure produce similar responses (i.e., tap the same underlying construct).

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Using the scale below, please indicate how much you disagree or agree with the following statements. Circle the appropriate number to the right of each statement.

1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Neutral Strongly disagree agree

1. I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others …………………………….. 1 22. I feel that I have a number of good qualities …….. 1 23. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure …. 1 24. I am able to do things as well as most people …… 1 2

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Structured Self-Report: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

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2. Inter-rater reliability:

• Relevant when observe ratings are obtained from two or more observers.

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• Reflects the degree to which the scores provided by different observers are consistent with one another

(i.e., the degree to which there is consensus among the observers).

• Involves calculating the correlation between the scores provided by different observers.

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3. Test-retest reliability:

• Relevant for all types of measures.

• Reflects the degree to which participants’ scores on the measure at time 1 are consistent with their scores on

the measure at time 2.

• Involves calculating the correlation between participants’ scores on successive test administrations

(i.e., their scores at time 1 and their scores at time 2).

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1. How is research used to test theories?

2. How is personality assessed?

3. How do researchers establish the reliability and validity of personality assessments?

Introductory Concepts and Personality Assessment

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