Assessment of Personality

INTRODUCTION

Assessment of personality is used to evaluate and draw an inference about the  personality or character of an individual based upon their character traits, emotional stability, belief, values, coping style, attitude, etc. Personality can be analysed at three levels or strata to understand individuality. After the three levels are well assessed, the results will be predicted and explained. Understanding the assessment is the most important in any case study. Although the predicted result can be confirmed, controversy can be seen in rare cases requiring more precision. Different personality tests are available if someone wants a clearer and more elaborate explanation. 

The Levels Of Personality Assessment

Over behaviour reflects a series of factors interlinked through past experiences. Personality can either be a strength or a liability, depending on the situation. There are three levels of personality assessment. The deepest level of the three strata is the narrative account. The narrative account is a set of life experiences or stories that slowly unravel a person’s life, which helps us understand the values and development. It gives us more quantitative knowledge for personality assessment. Moreover, any abnormal behaviour developed over a period of time can also be analysed and solved with a narrative account. 

Characteristic adaptation is said to be the middle strata of analysis. As the name suggests, characteristic adaptation deals with the adapted coping behaviour of an individual towards different types of stress. The main motive of characteristic adaptation is to analyse why a behaviour occurs or does not occur in a subject. An example of a characteristic adaptation is the sentence completion test at Washington University, which assesses the development of the ego. The most accessible and top level of analysis is trait analysis, where the study of traits predicts and explains the behaviour. There are many traits in an individual, but the psychologist must choose a set of traits that give accurate and enough information about an individual’s behaviour. 

The basic level of trait study is usually a simple summary of past behaviour, which will be decoded to understand the personality. Other trait assessments are focused upon situation-based questions that decode the approach of an individual in a situation to understand their individuality, for example, if a person gets a panic attack in-crowd, that implies they are agoraphobic. 

Assessment of personality helps individuals know themselves or solve their psychological issues and is also important in forensic psychology, which helps understand any individual’s personality with certain allegations. In this case, there may be two to three sessions to validate the result. 

Personality Assessment Methods

There are diverse assessments to test personality used widely all around the world. Personality assessment techniques include self-reports, interviews, behavioural observation, rating scales and projective techniques. After the assessment is done, a psychometric personality assessment is done to validate the result. Psychometry is the study to validate the result through techniques of measurement. The interview is a basic technique that is also very time-consuming. As an interview has verbal components, gestures, and expressions, it is easy for a psychologist to conclude. The sessions are long, but the amount of data gathered gives quality and quantity.

 Interviews can be of two types: clinical interview, which focuses on assessing an affected individual as a treatment or delineated interview designed to pursue research-based on that interview. Both the interviews are conducted to know about individuals life experiences and biographical information but differ in the usage of acquired information.  To check the same accuracy, interviews are conducted with the same interviewee after a particular period of time. 

The two interviews are compared via inferences, or if recorded, they are rewatched to understand an individual’s character. Another assessment is the self-report test, here a simple true-false test that can analyse and give us a quiet view of one’s personality. Inkblot test is another type of self-assessment test where inkblot perception is analysed to give results. This test is also known as the Rorschach test. Rating-Scale is the eldest, and one of the versatile techniques used to analyse the options in a multiple-choice question represents the degree of a particular characteristic. 

On the other hand, the behavioural assessment includes interviews, self-assessment, and direct observation of their characters when they are with someone compared to his individuality when he is alone at home. This allows analysing their behavioural change and the environment that provokes the change. Here, the choice of assessment is a major undertaking task that depends on the individual’s problem. The tasks are custom designed as most patients with psychological disorders have different issues. 

The Five-Factor Model

This model was developed by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, which describes personality traits in five broad factors. The five factors are neuroticism, agreeableness, extroversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience. Extroversion depends largely upon social skills and social motivations. 

The positive effect of social interest helps in interpreting the results. Neuroticism is the negative effect when individuals cannot behold their emotional stability. On the other hand, stern character and respectfulness fall under Conscientiousness. Agreeableness and openness to experience show the warm side of a person. When a person is open to all experiences shows that the person is flexible towards both positive and negative attributes of the experience. 

Conclusion

Assessment of personality is not written in any theories accurately. The assessment for each individual has to be different, and to do that; one should make a methodology following the guidelines mentioned in almost all theories. Assessing an individual’s personality requires getting creative and using cultural views followed by advanced technology. Assessment requires rephrasing old measures and the creation of new ones. In assessing personality, the counsellor should consider the client’s requirements. People are different from one another, so when a tool or method is used correctly, it may not be accurate for each case but will help assist the next step.