Psychology 3051 Psychology 305A: Theories of Personality Lecture 2 1

2 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 2

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 3

4 4 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.

5 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. 6 In order to test a theory, researchers must identify observable variables that reflect the constructs of interest. How is research used to test theories? 6 Examples of operationalizations:

7 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. 7 Construct: Self-esteem. Operationalization: ?

Theories 8 Hypotheses Operationalizations Research (i.e., experiments, correlational studies, case studies) Observations Interactive Relationship 8

How is personality assessed? Personality is measured using: 9 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).

10 Implicit Assessment: Rorschach Ink Blot Test 10

Psychology 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 _______________ 11

Psychology True/false items: I like loud and crowded parties ………… T/F I enjoy trying new foods …………………. T/F Adjective checklists: adventurous conservative Structured Self-Report: True/False Items and Adjective Checklists 12

13 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 StronglyNeutralStrongly disagree agree 1. I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others …………………………… I feel that I have a number of good qualities …… All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure … I am able to do things as well as most people ……12 13 Structured Self-Report: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

14 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. 14

15 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 15

16  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). 16

17 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 StronglyNeutralStrongly disagree agree 1. I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others …………………………… I feel that I have a number of good qualities …… All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure … I am able to do things as well as most people ……12 17 Structured Self-Report: Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale

18 2.Inter-rater reliability: Relevant when observe ratings are obtained from two or more observers. 18

19 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. 19

20 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). 20

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 21