Personality Assessment Instruments
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is an instrument which was designed to measure psychological preferences to determine how individuals would make decisions based on their perception of their circumstances. There are four pairs of dichotomies in Myers-Briggs and these are extraversion and introversion, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, and judgment and perception.
There have been many criticisms of Myers-Briggs validity. It has been observed that the accuracy of the results depend on the honesty of the respondent in giving self-reports. It was observed that a respondent who had cause to fear answering truthfully could easily answer as they felt they were expected to answer. Because of the lack of validity scales to control for exaggerated or socially desirable responses, the results of the Myers-Briggs may not accurately reflect the true personality of the respondent. For example, an applicant who wants to impress an employer may easily fabricate his or her responses in order to achieve a personality assessment which would be more suited to the job opening. Also, an assessment of the Myers-Briggs using factorial analysis has revealed that the test measures six different factors and not the four which are dichotomized in the test.
The test focuses on the behaviors of persons when making decisions. This makes the test more limited in defining an individuals personality. The results of the test are directed towards the four dichotomies that are measured in the instrument. Thus, personality characteristics of the respondent which are outside of the four being measured would not be covered by the test. Also, since the test is directed towards assessing the decision-making of the respondents, then the dichotomies may not accurately represent the personality of the individual in contexts other than decision-making. In other words, the test is not comprehensive and has a very definite and defined applicability.
Because of the precise area of personality to which the test is directed, there have been specific practices which have adopted the test. Myers-Briggs has often been used in career planning, manager assessments, employee screening, team building, pedagogy, marriage counseling and the like. The test is useful in determining the capability of leaders and employees because of the decision-making responsibilities which these individuals will be entrusted with. Their outlook in this regard is therefore key to their attainment of positions and the Myers-Briggs assesses whether or not their personality type is suitable for a given position. In the same regard, marriage counseling benefits from Myers-Briggs because spouses must face numerous problems and decisions together and it is essential that their personalities are compatible to ensure good relations between them despite the problems to be faced.
Myers-Briggs has a high level of cultural utility because of the numerous functions and areas in life which require decisions to be made. The manner in which a person faces and makes a decision is therefore crucial in determining whether the person should be placed in the position where decisions of such nature will have to be made. However, given the lack of falsifiability of the instrument and given its low level of reliability, Myers-Briggs still has to be applied with caution. Numerous agencies and offices utilize Myers-Briggs because of the applicability of the test to their need. The test should be statistically improved so that it would be more effective in addressing the concerns of those utilizing the instrument.
Rorschach Test
The Rorschach test is an inkblot test which has become quite popular because of the attention given it by mass media. The test presents a set of inkblot pictures to respondents. The respondents perceptions of the inkblots are recorded and later analyzed using psychological interpretation andor scientifically derived algorithms. It is the one of the top ten most widely used psychological tests available to the public.
The test is projective in nature. Its accuracy relies on a respondents projection of his or her feelings into the inkblots being presented and on the psychologists interpretation of the respondents projections. Because of the lack of an adequate scoring system, there have been arguments that the test lacks any validity whatsoever. Rorschach enthusiasts have responded by releasing scoring systems which would justify the interpretation of respondent projections. The Exner system of scoring is said to be the most rigorous and most comprehensive. It takes into consideration factors such as shading, color, and outline of the inkblots which lead to comments from the respondent. It also considers the number of responses given by a respondent. These factors are scored so as to determine the personality of the respondent. Despite the scoring system however the fact remains that a wide leeway is given to clinicians in the noting down and interpretation of a respondents comments, making test validity poor and highly untested.
The test is comprehensive in the sense that it has been said to determine not only personality structure but also factors which led to the development of such personality structure. However, the depth of revelation that a clinician attains through the Rorschach is dependent mainly on the comments given by a respondent. Some clinicians refer to respondent case profiles in order to create a fuller picture of the respondents background and the reason for his or her projections. In such cases, it is no longer the test which paints the personality of the respondent. Despite the reliance on respondent comment, the test may be said to be more comprehensive than the Myers-Briggs. The projective nature of the test allows the respondent to reflect numerous areas of his or her personality and not just those that would be tackled by fixed questions.
The test is widely applied to court-ordered psychological examinations. In most of these cases the test is used alongside other psychological tests. But with the observed increase in the use of Rorscach by courts there has also been an observed decrease in its use by forensic psychologists. Despite this, the test was ranked among the top ten psychological tests used by outpatient mental health facilities and it ranked second among the tests used by the Society for Personality Assessment. Moreover, the Rorschach has seen application in determining DSM-IV diagnoses of respondents. While it has received heavy criticism for its validity and reliability, there have been few instances when the results were questioned or dismissed.
The test finds cultural utility in that it allows respondents to freely communicate with a clinician regarding latent thoughts and emotions. Scaled questionnaires and tests may confuse or intimidate some respondents but projective tests allow free reign for them to express themselves. This creates a comfortable atmosphere between the respondent and the clinician making the results more acceptable for the respondent. In cases of reluctant and uncooperative litigants in a court case or of aloof mental facility outpatients, the Rorschach would have significant utility.
Self Help Books
Self help books are books which are intended to instruct the readers on various personal problems. These books often take on psychological problems and inform the reader not just about the nuances of the situation but even about the attitude and personality of the reader, depending on the actions that such reader would engage in, given the situation.
This type of personality assessment has very low validity because of the lack of measurable standards. Most authors provide generalized descriptions in order to distinguish classifications which readers may use to categorize their individual personality types. There is no accounting for the individual differences amongst people. The variations in personal traits are also not accounted for and thus the possibility that an individual may belong to a novel classification is not entertained. Finally, there is no controlling for the possibility that readers choose classifications on the basis of desirability and not on actual practice in their lives.
Self-help books are seldom comprehensive as they focus on particular aspects of a persons life (i.e. finances, relationships, occupation) and only on specific problems encountered therein. Self-help books may be comprehensive in the specific topic taken on but they say little about the range of other personality traits which a person may possess. More often than not, the personality assessments in self-help books are also not applicable in areas other than the particular topic of the book.
Despite the low level of validity, self-help books have found application in private circles because of their accessibility and easy-to-understand language. Organizations, family circles, friendship groups, church fellowships, and the like have found self-help books to be useful when relating with one another and understanding individual differences.
The books are highly useful in day-to-day dealings because they do not attract the cost or the stigma that is involved in taking personality examinations. Some people find it difficult to approach psychologists for examinations because of the misconception that only psychologically disturbed individuals approach psychologists. With self-help books however, there is no such stigma. These books can be enjoyed in privacy. Also, professional assessments have an air of finality which may be dreaded by respondents because they may not like the results. With self-help books the results are dependent on the choice of the reader and the reader may simply discard unwanted portions. The popularity of the books is tempered with small reliance on their accuracy as compared with findings of professional personality assessment tools
Conclusion
The above sections have discussed the qualifications of the Myers-Briggs test, Rorschach test and self-help books. It has been shown that the Myers-Briggs offers the greatest measurable outcome. However, the presence of measurable output doesnt deter the questioning on the validity of the measurements. All three tests have been criticized for having low levels of validity. The Myers-Briggs and the self-help books are largely self-report instruments which require truthfulness on the part of the respondent to ensure that the accurate personality is reflected. The Rorschach is dependent on the ability of the clinician to accurately interpret the self-projections of the respondent.
Despite the problems in validity, all three personality assessment instruments are still widely used. This is because of their ability to cater to specific areas of concern in the lives of respondents and test administrators. The Myers-Briggs focuses on decision-making personalities, the Rorschach sheds light on latent issues and the underlying causes for the development of the same, and self-help books focus on particular areas investigated by the authors. This specification has encouraged the proliferation of the tests and has fostered reliance on test results.
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