Assessment of Psychological Attributes

Introduction

While many psychologists feel that our characteristics drive our behaviours, others argue that situational influences are greater. The latter viewpoint is known as situationism, which asserts that one’s behaviour is influenced by the conditions and circumstances in which one finds himself. In the presence of their top employer, a normally hostile person may be subservient. Situational effects may be so potent that people with different personality types respond in essentially identical ways to them. The situationist perspective sees human behaviour as being influenced by external causes more than other perspectives.

Psychological Assessment Evaluation 

Psychological assessments are involved in basic phenomena such as the time it takes to react to a stimulus, i.e. reaction time, and more complex ideas like happiness. The amount of psychological qualities that may be measured is difficult to enumerate and describe. The first step in comprehending a psychological trait is to assess it. Assessment is the process of determining and evaluating an individual’s psychological characteristics, frequently via several methodologies and standards of comparison. Any attribute in a person may only be deemed to exist if it can be assessed using scientific processes. When we say “Harish is dominating,” for example, we’re talking to Harish’s level of ‘dominance.’

Our psychological assessment might be casual or formal. Formal evaluation is objective, consistent, and well-organised. On the other hand, informal evaluation varies from case to case and from assessor to assessor, leaving it susceptible to subjective interpretation. Psychologists are educated to evaluate psychological characteristics formally. We may use the psychological assessment results to forecast how Harish would likely act in the future. If Harish is allowed to manage a team, we can anticipate that he would most likely be an authoritarian leader. If the expected outcome is not what we desire, we may need to interfere to influence Harish’s behaviour. Our goal determines the psychological testing and assessment attribute we choose.

We may examine a poor student’s intellectual strengths and limitations to assist them in performing well on tests. We may consider examining a person’s personality features if they fail to adjust with members of their family and neighbourhood. We can analyse a person’s interests and preferences if they are unmotivated. Individuals’ talents, behaviours, and psychological testing and assessment are evaluated through systematic testing processes in psychological evaluation.

Some Psychological Attributes Domains

Psychological characteristics are not one-dimensional or linear. They are multi-dimensional and multi-dimensional. A line is nothing more than a collection of points. A point occupies no space. But consider a box. It takes up room. Only three dimensions, namely length, breadth, and height, may be used to describe it. The same is true of psychological characteristics. Typically, they are multi-dimensional. If you want to get a whole picture of a person, you’ll need to look at how they perform in several domains or areas, such as cognitive, emotional, social, and so on.

This section will go over several key characteristics that psychologists are interested in. These characteristics are classified using a variety of tests found in the psychiatric literature.

1. Intelligence is the ability to comprehend the world, reason reasonably, and effectively utilise available resources when confronted with problems. Intelligence tests comprehensively assess a person’s overall cognitive abilities and capacity to benefit from learning. Students with low intellect are less likely to perform well on school-related exams in general, but their success in life is not only determined by their intelligence test scores.
2. Aptitude refers to a person’s innate ability to learn new abilities. Aptitude tests anticipate what a person may do given the right environment and instruction. A strong mechanical aptitude can succeed as an engineer with the right training. Similarly, a person with strong verbal skills may be taught to write well.
3. Interest is defined as a person’s preference for specific activities above others. Students’ interests can be used to determine which disciplines or courses they can study comfortably and with enjoyment. Knowledge about our passions aids us in making decisions that improve our quality of life and job performance.
4. Personality refers to a person’s generally permanent features that distinguish them from others. Personality tests attempt to determine a person’s distinct qualities, such as whether they are dominant or submissive, extroverted or reserved, moody or emotionally stable, and so on. Personality evaluation aids in explaining an individual’s behaviour and predicting future behaviour.

5. Values are long-held ideas about a desirable way of behaving. A person with worth establishes a standard for directing their activities in life and assessing others. In value evaluation, we try to discover a person’s primary values (e.g., political, religious, social, or economic).

Methods of Evaluation

1. A psychological test is a standardised and objective psychological assessment of a person’s mental and behavioural traits. All aspects of psychological traits (e.g., IQ, aptitude, etc.) have been measured using objective tests. Clinical diagnosis, advice, personnel selection, placement, and training are common uses for these exams. In addition to objective exams, psychologists have created projective tests to analyse personality.
2. An interview is a one-on-one conversation where you seek information from a person. When a counsellor engages with a client, a salesman conducts a door-to-door poll on the usefulness of a certain product, an employer hires staff, or a journalist conducts interviews with prominent individuals on national and international topics, it may be employed.
3. A case study is an in-depth examination of an individual’s psychological characteristics, psychological history, and psychosocial and physical surroundings. Clinical psychologists frequently employ case studies. Case studies of exceptional people’s lives may also be quite instructive for individuals eager to learn from their own life experiences. Case studies are based on various methods, such as interviews, observations, questionnaires, psychological tests, etc.
4. Observation is the process of recording behavioural occurrences that occur spontaneously in real-time using systematic, organised, and objective processes. Observing some events, such as mother-child relationships, is a simple way to learn more about them. The main disadvantages of observational approaches are that the observer has limited control over the circumstances and that the reports may contain personal information.

Conclusion

Personal characteristics such as IQ, aptitude, hobbies, personality, and values may be evaluated. Psychologists use psychological exams, interviews, case studies, observations, and self-reports to evaluate these characteristics. The term ‘intelligence’ refers to a person’s ability to comprehend the world, reason sensibly and effectively employ resources to satisfy life’s demands. The outcome of a complicated interplay between inherited variables (nature) and environmental situations is intellectual growth (nurture). The psychometric approaches to intelligence focus on examining intelligence as a set of qualities that may be stated numerically, such as IQ.