Chapter 13: Personality Assessment Methods

Why is it surprising that B. F. Skinner developed the first auditory projective test?

B. F. Skinner was deaf
B. F. Skinner lost partial hearing in his right ear due to a pistol-duel with Herman Rorschach
Most of B. F. Skinner’s career was in the era before sound could be recorded
As a behaviorist, B. F. Skinner did not believe that mentalistic terms such as projection are scientifically useful

There is some concern and controversy surrounding Exner’s norms for the Comprehensive System for the Rorschach. Some claim that:

Exner altered the norms so that his own Rorschach scores would appear healthier
the graduate students who collected the data for the normative sample were poorly trained
the normative sample from Australia does not represent the U.S. population well
the norms overpathologize even non-clinical groups

Which is NOT an advantage of behavioral assessment over other forms of assessment?

to elucidate contradictory dynamics in the assessee’s motivational structure
to provide behavioral baseline data
to provide a record of the assessee's behavioral strengths and weaknesses across a variety of situations
to pinpoint environmental conditions that are acting to trigger, maintain, or extinguish certain behaviors

Self-monitoring differs from self-report in that:

with self monitoring it is up to the assessee to decide what to report
with self monitoring behaviors are recorded at the time and place in which they occur
with self monitoring the responses are not recorded
with self monitoring the assessee records all the relevant behaviors but reports to the evaluator only the important findings

Projective tests are methods of personality assessment.

The development of projective tests:

began only in the past three decades
was virtually ignored by legitimate test developers
represented a reaction to attempts to assess personality using normative approaches
was heralded by those employing actuarial prediction as a breakthrough in assessment techniques

The Rorschach Inkblot Test:

was originally developed with highly structured and comprehensive administration and scoring instructions
can be purchased as either a black-and-white or a multicolored set of cards, according to the examiner’s purpose
is used widely by behavioral psychologists
none of the above

In the administration of the Rorschach Inkblot Test,

any spontaneous statements that the individual makes that are irrelevant to the card should not be considered in the interpretation
an inquiry of the individual may be completed after the first administration in an attempt to clarify what was seen and to determine whether any new responses are subsequently perceived
“testing the limits” and asking specific questions of the examinee invalidate the findings
care must be taken to make certain examinees blacken the grids fully with #2 pencils

Assessing the reliability of the Rorschach using the split-half method is not considered appropriate because:

there are too few inkblots to enable interpretation through the split-half method
stimulus cards are presented twice and possibly three times
responses by subjects may be too lengthy to adapt to split-half procedures
each inkblot is considered to have a unique stimulus quality

The most widely used picture-story test is the:

A major assumption inherent in the TAT is that examinees:

are unaware of the significance of their responses
did not watch Supernatural the night before being assessed
are aware of the significance of their responses and desire to manage a favorable impression
are aware of the significance of their responses

The Children’s Apperception Test (CAT) depicts ________ in its pictures.

Word association tests such as that developed by Jung:

are usually based on cognitive theories of personality
are based on the premise that certain key words represent areas of conflict
utilize only “traumatic” stimulus words, in an attempt to diagnose associative disturbances
employ normative databases with samples matched to U.S. census data

Sentence completion tests:

Murstein questions which assumption(s) concerning projective methods?

the more ambiguous the stimuli, the more the subject reveals
subjects are unaware of what they are disclosing
there is a parallel between behavior obtained on a projective test and behavior displayed in social situations
all listed reasons