Lecture 2 - personality.docx

PersonalityLecture 2 1102012 70600 AM Personality is critical in the domain of researchyou can devise a test to measure traitssome psychologists devote their whole career to generating tests if we can not measure traits personality theories cannot make meaningful predictions personality assessment is a central part in personality research in clinical studies psychologists like to use psychological tests a good psychological report should say something about patients personality even when that is not the focussometimes in the real world the reason for referral is to give a report if a patient is a good candidate for psychotherapy legal mattersfairly extremely comprehensive personality assessment needs to be donesomeone who is easily irritated is not a good candidate in clinical settings personality assessment are almost never a meaning less exercise there are a variety of ways of assessing personality test that clinical psychologists use depend on their focus What goes on in a personality assessment clinical interviewprocess that we call observationobserving people can tell us a lot about themtangentialhave trouble focusing go off on a tangentclinical interview carries a great deal of weight in personality assessmentDoctor Silverman observed that it took 10 mins to assess a patient clinicians vary on the way they assess personality personality tests vary according to their function o MMPI testdesigned to help you make a diagnosis identifies the presence of psychopathologylevel of structureo MMPI is a very structured test Same questions same ordero Others are notHow they are constructed