Five Major Approaches to Personality Assessment

Five major approaches are used in personality assessment. They are inclusive of self-report/objective inventories, projective techniques, clinical interviews, behavioral assessment procedures and lastly thought and experience sampling techniques.  Each of the methods has its advantages and limitations as analyzed below; 

Self-Report/ Objective inventories

A self-report inventory is a psychological test where one fills out their details. They can fill in their details with or without the help of an investigator. The self-report require a person to fill in a questionnaire or a survey. The questions are directed to specific issues such as the personal interests of the person, their values symptoms and behaviors that they elicit among others (Silvia et al., 2012). From the objective inventories, one may be able to determine from the results the personality of the one filling in the self-report.

Advantages

• A self-report is inexpensive in that the researcher may not be required to pay the respondents.
• Self-reports involves direct questions which are easy to answer and hence take a short time. 
• Self-reports have a high level of reliability because they use scores from where personalities can be evaluated.

Disadvantages

• The investigator may not have the ability to validate the answers provided by the respondents.
• Respondents may be psychologically influenced to score high and hence fail to give their correct details.

Projective Techniques

The projective technique is a method where the investigator directly contacts the psychological realm of the subjects. The investigator requires the subjects to respond to some visual stimuli, complete a set of sentences or ask the respondents to respond to particular things said to them (Piotrowski, 2015). The test is mostly used to evaluate the personality in the manner in which the respondents react to the stimulus which reveals their personal conflicts motivations their ability to cope to situations and their other personalities that the investigator may wish to identify.

Advantages

• The procedure evaluates the specific personality of an individual based on their response to a specific stimulus. 
• The investigator can genuinely evaluate the specific personality of the respondent because they make vivid responses. 
• The respondent is not in a position to alter their behavior as they respond to the stimuli just as they do normally.

Disadvantages

• The process requires the identification of the best stimulus to use is hard for the investigator. 
• Though the results of the evaluations using projective techniques are often accurate the evaluation of the personality in question is subject to the personal interpretation of the investigator.

Clinical Interviews

The clinical interview personality assessment procedure is a critical evaluation process whereby counselors who are knowledgeable ask individuals questions to gather information that is pertinent to their personality (Sarason 2015). The therapists make individuals feel comfortable and candid and answer honestly to ensure that the relevant information is released.

Advantages

• Clinical interview utilizes specialists such as therapists who have ample knowledge on how to make the interviews elicit their emotions without fear.
• They involve open-ended questions which enable the respondents to reply without restrictions.

Disadvantages

• Due to the clinical nature of clinical interviews, the respondent may reserve some information.
• It is a costly process for the respondent because they have to pay to access clinical solutions and hence it is not a popular technique.

Behavioral Assessment Procedures

This is a personality assessment that requires an objective assessment of the behavior of a respondent. There are a variety of assessments that could be used in this case but they all should be focused in revealing the behavior of an individual across a wide spectrum of environments to determine their personality (D’Andrade, 2017). Behavioral assessment requires the use of a wide range of assessments such as the use of interviews observation of the behavior of the subject in general and in created situations among other various situations. Using the technique, the investigator can understand the variation in behaviors showed by the interviewee.

Advantages

• A wide range of assessments are done such that an individual is assigned a personality after a number of techniques are made use of.
• The investigator may use the variety of behaviors to identify behavioral problems that could account as personality disorders rather than actual personalities.

Disadvantages

• The observer could be biased thus making becoming a source of error.
• The subject may know that they are being studied and change their behavior thereby making the observer make an invalid assessment.

Thought and Experience Sampling

The thought and experience sampling technique is personality evaluation technique that requires the one to understand the daily lives of the people and what they do, feel and think during their daily lives. It is a critical evaluation of self whereby people reflect on their lives which makes it easy for the observer to reflect on how their thoughts shape their behaviors (Sarason 2015). Their experiences in the past are also used in this procedure to establish their personalities. 

Advantages

• There is every room for honesty because the observer is the same person being evaluated.
• Thoughts are private and cannot be altered hence the results are reliable. 

Disadvantage

• It is a personalized process which most people do not subscribe to.

In conclusion, each of the five significant approaches to personality assessment is applicable in its particular environment. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, and by observing them one can decide on which is the most reliable approach to use.

References

D’Andrade, R. G. (2017). Memory and the assessment of behavior. In Measurement in the social sciences (pp. 159-186). Routledge.

Piotrowski, C. (2015). Projective techniques usage worldwide: A review of applied settings 1995-2015. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 41(3), 9-19.

Sarason, I. (2015). Personality assessment | psychology. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/personality-assessment

Silvia, P. J., Wigert, B., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Kaufman, J. C. (2012). Assessing creativity with self-report scales: A review and empirical evaluation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6(1), 19.