Personality Assessment essay

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT 1

PersonalityAssessment

Personality Test

Personality test refers to measurement of personal characteristics byadministering, interpreting and scoring empirically supportedmeasures of styles and traits of a person in order to refine theclinical diagnoses, enhance behavioral prediction and inform thepsychological interventions. Several criteria are applied inevaluating the personality test. The test is supposed to demonstratevalidity and reliability. The responses of the respondents are usedin computing the analysis. The paper, therefore, will focus on EmmaKinch, a virtual client, to apply knowledge of personalityassessment.

PresentingProblems

The main presenting problems in the current test are sadness,withdrawal and irritableness. Since the death of her husband, Emmahas been sad, withdrawn and irritable. This might have been cause bythe loneliness as she can no longer interact with her outside worldsince the husband was the one who was facilitating this owing toEmma’s blindness. Also, hypothyroidism condition may have played agreater role in the sudden change of the personality. One of thecharacteristics of hypothyroidism is depression and irritableness.

Hypothesis:This task hypothesize that Emma exhibits high neuroticism and lowagreeableness personality.

Personalitytest: The most appropriate personality test for this case isNEO-4. This method provides the information on four personalityareas. These are Extraversion, Experience, Openness, Agreeablenessand Conscientiousness. NEO PI-R comprises of 240 items that clientsare expected to answer based on Likert Scale of 1-5(1-StronglyDisagree, 5-Strongly Agree)[ CITATION Cos16 l 2057 ].

The 240 items used comprised of simple sentences that describedcertain attitudes and behaviors. In this method, for each of the fivemain personality domains, the six facets scales were used to assessthe more specific characteristics for each domain.

This instrument was used because it presents an excellent test forpersonality. Also, the instrument has very high internal consistencyfor the scales and allows for test and retest for correlating thepre-and post-treatments[ CITATION Wet13 l 2057 ].

MockAssessment Results

From the analysis of Emma’s case, there is high likelihood that sheis the virtual client 3 high neuroticism and low agreeableness. Thisis because of her high level sadness, irritability and aggressiveoutbursts.

Procedure

The five tests of neuroticism, extraversion,openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousnesswere evaluated using IPIP scales proposed byGoldberg (1999). This scale has been used also in several otherstudies like Robinson and Wilkowski (2006). In this case, theresearcher indicated the extent of agreement of the client to theitems using Likert Scale (1=Very Inaccurate, 2=Moderately Inaccurate3=Neither inaccurate noraccurate, 4= Moderately Accurate, 5=Very Accurate). Twenty questions were used for each test and posed tothe client. The scores were recorded.

Analysisof tests

Neuroticism test

Results

1. 5

2. 5

3. 5

4. 5

5. 5

6. 5

7. 5

8. 5

9. 5

10. 5

11. 5

12. 5

13. 5

14. 5

15. 5

16. 5

17. 5

18. 5

19. 5

20. 1

The score is 96%

Bottom of Form

Extraversion Test

Extraversion Answers

1. 1

2. 1

3. 1

4. 1

5. 1

6. 2

7. 4

8. 1

9. 2

10. 1

11. 1

12. 2

13. 2

14. 5

15. 2

16. 1

17. 3

18. 5

19. 5

20. 5

Score=&nbsp46%

Openness to Experience

Results

1. 3

2. 1

3. 3

4. 1

5. 2

6. 1

7. 2

8. 3

9. 1

10. 2

11. 1

12. 3

13. 1

14. 1

15. 3

16. 1

17. 3

18. 3

19. 2

20. 1

Score is 38%

Agreeableness

Results

1. 1

2. 1

3. 1

4. 1

5. 1

6. 1

7. 1

8. 1

9. 1

10. 1

11. 1

12. 1

13. 5

14. 1

15. 5

16. 1

17. 1

18. 1

19. 1

20. 1

Score is 24%

Conscientiousness

Results

1. 1

2. 4

3. 2

4. 2

5. 4

6. 1

7. 2

8. 3

9. 2

10. 5

11. 4

12. 1

13. 3

14. 1

15. 2

16. 4

17. 2

18. 2

19. 2

20. 2

Score is 49%

Summary of the Tests

Conclusion

The NEO PI-R result for Emma are high neuroticism (96%) and low agreeableness (24%). These are results for virtual client 3. Agreeableness refers to the tendency to be cooperative and compassionate as opposed to antagonistic and suspicious towards other people[ CITATION Wat14 l 2057 ]. It measures the nature of trust that a person has towards other people. High agreeableness shows that a person is submissive while low agreeableness reflects challenging and argumentative personalities. In this case, Emma has developed aggressive outbursts. Less agreeable individuals have low motivation to avoid emotions like anger. To be agreeable, Emma should be helped in possessing abilities and skills that help suppress hostility-related feelings and the response tendencies.

Neuroticism refers to tendency towards unpleasant emotions like vulnerability, depression and anxiety[ CITATION Olv12 l 2057 ]. This personality trait depicts emotional stability of a person. A person with high neuroticism exhibits negative emotions like sadness, anxiety and withdrawal. Also, neurotic personalities have high irritation levels and demonstrate coping strategies that endorse interpersonal conflicts. Emma has been showing signs of extreme sadness and withdrawal especially after the death of her husband. She no longer takes part in gardening clubs and church the way she used to before the death of her husband. In psychology, such high level neuroticism mostly link to interpersonal conflicts and social relations.

Additional Assessment Methods

California Psychological Inventory (CPI)

CPI is a self-report account that was created by Harrison Gough. It comprises of 434 items with the test being scored on 18 scales, out of which three are validity scales. The eleven the non-validity scales are chosen based on responses from different groups of people while the remaining four are content validated. The test is applicable to people who are over 13 years of age. This qualifies the use of this instrument for personality test of Emma who is 78 years old[ CITATION Car14 l 2057 ].

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

MMPI is amongst the most widely used in psychometric tests. The method has evolved over time from MPPI, MPPI-2, MPPI-A to MPPI-2-R[ CITATION Car14 l 2057 ]. The method comprises of 550 items with 10 clinical scales. As shown below.

This implies that the method is ideal for testing people with over ten clinical disorders. The instruments has four main validity scales. These are Can-not Scale, K-scale (defensiveness), F-scale (infrequency scale) and lie scale. The client is required to indicate whether the statements posed forward are either true or false. This instrument would have been critical in the current tests as they help not only to diagnose persons with different clinical scales but is able to detect invalidities like defensiveness of the client[ CITATION Wat14 l 2057 ].

MPPI can be used as an instrument in treatment. This implies that psychologists can use the MPPI results that take into consideration complexities of individual’s personality to serve as basis for developing a treatment plan that is effective as well as facilitate efficient client’s reporting and feedback.

Integration of results to meet the treatment planning of the client

In order to integrate the results of the personality assessment to Emma’s treatment, I’ll recommend medications and self-help strategies[ CITATION Car14 l 2057 ]. First, since Emma has been medically diagnosed with hypothyroidism, medication will help in treating her and hopefully this will reduce or even eliminate the depression that comes with the disorder. Second, self-help strategies will be tailored towards ensuring that Emma gains back her active role in church and gardening club. This will be achieved through encouraging the group leaders and family members to ensure that Emma joins them or other special groups in the society. These two techniques will play a major role towards recovery of Emma.

References

Carlson, J. F., Geisinger, K. F., &amp Jonson, J. L. (2014). The nineteenth mental measurements yearbook. Lincoln, NE, US: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements .

Costa, P., Abecasis, G., &amp Schlessinger, D. (2016). Variants of the Serotonin Transporter Gene and NEO-PI-R Neuroticism. American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 150(8), 45-59.

Olvet, D. M., &amp Hajcak, G. (2012). The error-related negativity relates to sadness following mood induction among individuals with high neuroticism. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(3), 289-295.

Watson, D. C. (2014). Materialism: Profiles of agreeableness and neuroticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 56, 197-200.

Wetzel, E., Böhnke, J. R., &amp Carstensen, C. H. (2013). Do individual response styles matter? Assessing differential item functioning for men and women in the NEO-PI-R. Journal of Individual Differences, 34(2), 69.