SPURTHY COLLEGE OF

NURSING
BANGALORE
NURSING EDUCATION
ASSIGNMENT
ON
TOOLS FOR EVALUATION

PERSONALITY TEST

Submitted to:
Submitted by : S SREENIVASON
MSc. Nursing 1st year,
SPURTHY CON, BANGALORE
INTRODUCTION
Personality assessment refers to the estimation of one’s personality
make up, that is the person’s characteristic behaviour patterns and
salient and stable characteristics. As there are different theoretical
accounts of personality, and the question is how do people find out
what kind of personality they have? The methods of estimating or
measuring or assessing personality vary according to the theory of
personality used to develop those methods. However, most of the
psychological professionals doing personality assessment do not
necessarily tie themselves to one theoretical view point only, rather
they prefer to take an eclectic view of personality. The eclectic view
is a way of choosing the parts of different theories that seem to best
fit a particular situation, rather than using only me theory to explain
a phenomenon.

OBJECTIVES

 Define personality assessment

 Explain the prominent features of personality assessment

 Explain the aims of personality assessment

 Explain the various methods used in the assessment of

personality

 Differentiate between different types of tools of personality

assessment

 Explain projective techniques in detail

 Explain objective techniques in detail.

NEEDS AND AIMS OF ASSESSMENT

Testing is becoming more and more important with each growing

area of psychology. Traditionally, tests were employed only to
measure individual differences or intra individual reactions under
different circumstances. The nature and extent of individual
differences, their possessed psychological traits,differences among
various groups etc. are becoming some of the major components
demanding assessment as an aid of measurement. Personality
testing is an essential pre-requisite for identifying the various
constituents of personality. Testing in personality provides
measures of emotional and motivational traits of personality.

METHODS OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

Some of the important tests and techniques measuring personality

include (i) Interviews (ii) Projective techniques (iii) Association
techniques (iv) Expressive techniques

(1) Interviews :-

Interview is a method of personality assessment in which the

interviewee has to answer the questions asked by the professional,
in a structured or unstructured fashion. Some therapists note down
the answers of the interviewee in a survey process. This type of
interview is unstructured in manner and moves naturally.

Limitations of Interviews

Interview by the psychologist demands the report of innermost

feeling, concerns and urges on the part of client. This is something
that can be known directly by the client/interviewee and thus, the
problems encountered with self report data like survey are faced
with interviewing also. Interviewees/Clients can misinform, lie,
distort the actual facts or reality and hide the true information for
social desirability. Also, biases can occur on the part of the
interviewers as their personal belief system or prejudices may put
obstacles in the interpretation of the information given by the
interviewee.

(2) Projective Techniques :-

These techniques are assumed to reveal those central aspects of

personality that lie in the unconscious mind of an individual.
Unconscious motivations, hidden desires, inner fears and complexes
are presumed to be elicited by their unstructured nature that affect
the client’s conscious behaviour. The assignment of a relatively
unstructured task is a major distinguishing feature of projective
techniques.

An unstructured task is one that permits an endless range of

possible responses. The underlying hypothesis of projective
techniques is that the way the test material or “structures” are
perceived and interpreted by the individual, reflects the
fundamental aspects of her or his psychological functioning. In other
words, the test material serves as a sort of screen on which
respondents “project” their characteristic thought processes,
anxieties, conflicts and needs .

Classification of Projective Techniques

Various types of projective techniques have been classified into

several categories by psychologists.

i) Constructive: It includes all those tests and situations where the

construction of some specific task is to be done by the examinee.
The subject needs to frame a structure upon the situation presented
by the examiner, and be asked to draw a human figure allowing the
person to freely express the examiner’s inclination.

ii) Constitutive: This category includes those tests which require

the examinee to constitute structures upon some given
unstructured materials, as for example, The Rorschach Ink Blot
technique.

In this test the examinee imposes own structure upon the

unstructured ink blots (Zubin, Eros and Schumer, 1965) and the
subject’s responses are scored and interpreted.

iii) Cathartic: It includes those situations where the examinee can

release his wishes, inner demands, conflicts etc. through some
manipulative tasks.

iv) Interpretative: It includes those test situations where the

examinee has to add a detailed meaning to the given situation. For
example, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Word
Association Test.

v) Refractive: This category includes all those techniques through

which the examinee gets the opportunity to depict his personality in
the form of drawing, painting etc. Frank cited that graphology is the
best example of this category.

If we evaluate Frank’s classification, it is obvious that it

consists of several limitations. The biggest one is that according to
his classification, same test can be included in two or more
categories, causing considerable overlap. This way, Frank’s
classification is not a popular classification of projective methods.

(3) Association Techniques :-

This category includes all those situations where responses are to

be given by the examinee in the form of associations which he
makes after seeing or listening to the stimulus material . E.g. The
Word Association Test etc. In the Word Association test, the
examinee is provided with a number of words in the form of a list
and he is required to utter the very first word that comes to his mind
on listening the stimulus word. The responses in accordance with
the reaction time are used for the analysis of personality of the
individual.

INK BLOT TECHNIQUES :

The Ink blot techniques consist of two popular techniques, that is,
The Rorschach Test and The Holtzman Ink blot test. In these tests
the examinee has to respond to an unstructured situation composed
of some ink blots.

1.Construction Techniques

All those situations are included here in which a story is

constructed by the examinee on seeing the stimulus material within
some given time limit. The themes and mode of responding are
considered relevant in such tests. The Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT), the Object Relations Test are some of the examples of
construction techniques. Some other tests like Draw-A-Person test
are also included in this category. In all these tests, the examinee
constructs or produces simple/complex statements in a story form
or draws some picture or person.

2. Completion Techniques

These include the situations where some incomplete sentences are

presented to the examinee and he can complete them in the form
he desires. For example I want ……….., I feel excited
about………………….. The subject has to fill up the blanks and the
responses given by the examinee are recorded and analysed to get
a picture of the individual’s personality. For example, Rotter’s
Incomplete Sentences Blank. Some people consider it as a semi
projective technique.
3. Expressive Techniques

These include those tests where some manipulative tasks are used
by the examinee to depict his or her personality. Some interaction
with the given material is the theme of these techniques. Some of
the common expressive techniques include role playing, finger
painting, play, drawing etc. The characteristic feature of expressive
techniques is that the examiner pays much attention to the manner
in which the given materials are manipulated by the examinee.

4. The Rorschach Inkblot Test

Rorschach inkblot test was developed in 1921 by Swiss psychiatrist

Hermann Rorschach. It consists of 10 inkblots, five in black ink on a
white background and five in colored inks on a white background.
The Rorschach test is a measure of both the intellectual and non
intellectual personality traits. While developing Completion
Techniques These include the situations where some incomplete
sentences are presented to the examinee and he can complete
them in the form he desires. For example I want ……….., I feel
excited about………………….. The subject has to fill up the blanks
and the responses given by the examinee are recorded and
analysed to get a picture of the individual’s personality. For
example, Rotter’s Incomplete Sentences Blank. Some people
consider it as a semi projective technique. 3.4.3 Expressive
Techniques These include those tests where some manipulative
tasks are used by the examinee to depict his or her personality.
Some interaction with the given material is the theme of these
techniques. Some of the common expressive techniques include
role playing, finger painting, play, drawing etc. The characteristic
feature of expressive techniques is that the examiner pays much
attention to the manner in which the given materials are
manipulated by the examinee. 3.4.4 The Rorschach Inkblot Test
Rorschach inkblot test was developed in 1921 by Swiss psychiatrist
Hermann Rorschach. It consists of 10 inkblots, five in black ink on a
white background and five in colored inks on a white background.
The Rorschach test is a measure of both the intellectual and non
intellectual personality traits.

5. The Holtzman Inkblot Test

Holtzman et. Al. (1961) developed an inkblot test known as the

Holtzman Inkblot Test (HIT). This test was developed by Holtzman in
order to remove the inherent technical difficulties of the Rorschach
like unlimited number of responses, poor scorer reliability etc. There
are two parallel forms (A and B) having 45 cards, both colored and
achromatic and markedly asymmetric. One response per card is
taken by the respondent. Each response is followed by a two fold
simple question : where was the percept represented in the blot and
what the percept suggests about the blot ? All the responses are
then classified under 22 response variables.

It has been found by many researchers that Holtzman test

appears to be better standardised than the Rorschach test. Also the
scorer reliability of the HIT is highly satisfactory validity data on HIT
have also yielded satisfactory results. It has also overcome the
problem of productivity ratio by specifying the number of responses.
Recently, Holtzman (1988) has also developed a variant of HIT
called HIT 25. Consisting of 25 cards. It has been found to be
successful in diagnosing schizophrenia.

6. The TAT

This test was developed by Henry Murray and his colleagues

(Morgan and Murray, 1935). The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
consists of 20 pictures which are all black and white. The people
depicted in the picture are deliberately drawn in ambiguous
situations. After showing the picture, a story is to be told by the
client about the person or people in the picture. They have to say
what is happening in the picture, what has caused the event and
what could have taken place in the past and what would happen in
the future. The story narrated by the client is interpreted by the
psychologist, who tries to look for revealing statements and
projection of the client’s hidden emotions onto the characters in the
pictures. In the original interpretation method of TAT scores, the
examiner first determines who is the “hero”, the character of either
sex with whom the respondent presumably identifies himself or
herself. The content of the stories is then analysed in reference to
Murray’s list of “needs” and “press”. Achievement, affiliation and
aggression are the examples of needs whereas “press” refers to
environmental forces that may facilitate or interfere with need
satisfaction.

However, TAT has been used extensively in the research of

personality but the high variations in administration and scoring
procedures associated with TAT has made it quite difficult to
investigate the psychometric properties of the TAT. Nevertheless,
the value of Thematic Apperception Techniques has been confirmed
and also the clinical utility of various versions of the TAT both for
traditional and specific applications have been established.

7. The Sentence Completion Tests

Other than these two well-known projective tests, there are some
other types of projective tests which include Sentence Completion
test, Draw-A-Person test,and House-Tree-Person Test. In the
sentence completion test, verbal material is used. Various
incomplete sentences are given to the subject to complete them.
Some of the incomplete sentences are like example given below: I
feel very ……., I wish my mother…. The subject is asked to complete
the sentence the way he/she desires. In the Draw-A-Person and
House-Tree-Person, the client is supposed to draw the named items
on a white sheet.

Limitations of the Projective Tests

Projective tests are basically subjective in nature and the

interpretation of the answers of clients needs deep analytic and
artistic traits. Reliability and validity related problems always exist
in projective tests. There are no standard grading scales for
projective tests. Person’s varying mood may decide the person’s
answer which may vary considerably from one day to another.

Some situational variables like the examiner’s physical

characteristics are likely to influence the responses on projective
techniques. It has also been seen that the changed instructions on
the part of examiner also influence the examinee’s scores on
projective techniques to a great extent.

Finally, in the words of Eysenck (1959), projective techniques

can be summarised as those in which the relationship between
projective indicators and personality traits have not been
demonstrated by any empirical evidences.

A number of evidences show that most studies of projective

techniques are guided by methodological flaws and are ill designed.
Projective techniques are not guided by any consistent,
meaningful and testable theories.

There is no evidence showing a relationship between global

interpretation of projective techniques by experts and psychiatrists.
 Generally, projective techniques have poor predictive ability
regarding failure or success in various walks of life.

CONCLUSION

All types of personality tests available possess certain difficulties

which are both of theoretical and practical in nature. Every
approach comes up with certain advantages and disadvantages.
However, personality measurement research has gained enough
importance. Still various devices are in the process of improvement.
53 Some upcoming trends in personality testing include increasing
evidence of mutual influence between emotional and cognitive
traits. Second, development of a comprehensive model relating to
human activity subsuming all sorts of basic research on both
emotional and cognitive traits.

References

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 Exner, J.E.Jr.(1966). The Rorschach systems.New York: Grune &

Statton.

 Eysenck, H.J.,& Eysenck, S.B.G.(1993). Eysenck Personality

Questionnaire [Revised]. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

 Gough,H.G.(1995).California Psychological Inventory(3rd ed.).

Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist –Press.

 Holtzman, W.H., Thorpe, J.S. ,(1961). Inkblot perception and

personalityHoltzman Inkblot technique. Austin: University of
Texas Press
 Wiener, I.B. (1997).Current status of the Rorschach Inkblot
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