This document discusses different types of personality tests. It begins by defining personality and personality tests. It describes several specific personality tests including the Big Five Inventory, Emotional Intelligence Test, and Keirsey Temperament Sorter. It then provides more details on the Big Five personality dimensions and discusses the trait and type approaches to personality. The document also discusses Holland's theory of occupational personality types and provides an example of interpreting the Briggs-Myer personality test results. It analyzes objective and projective personality tests, such as the Rorschach inkblot test and Thematic Apperception Test.

1. TYPES OF PERSONALITY
TESTS
BY
DR.SHAZIA ZAMIR

2. Personality
The relatively stable and distinctive patterns of behavior
that characterizes an individual and his or her reactions to
the environment.
Personality tests
An attempt to measure personality traits, states, types, and
other aspects of personality (such as self concept).
Emotional intelligence test
Self concept inventory
The big five inventory
Keirsey temperament sorter etc

3. Introduction
The first personality tests were developed in 1920s and were
intended to ease the process of personnel selection,
particularly in the armed forces. Since these early efforts of
these test, a wide variety of personality tests have been
developed like MBTI, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI).
Personality tests have become an industry and are used in a
range of contexts, including individual and relationship
counseling, career planning, employee selection and
development, and customer interaction management.

4. Big Five personality dimensions
Openness to Experience
(intellect, imagination, curiosity, creativity)
Conscientiousness
(order, duty, deliberation, self-discipline)
Extraversion
(sociability, assertiveness, activity, positive emotions)
Agreeableness
(trust, nurturance, kindness, cooperation)
Neuroticism
(anxiety, depression, moodiness,vulnerability to stress)

5. Internal and External Locus of Control

6. Type and Trait Approaches Describe
Behavioral Dispositions
 “Personality Types” are distinct categories
into which we place people.
 Personality “traits” are dispositional: they
predispose persons to behave, think, and
feel in enduring patterns across situations

7. Occupational Personality Types
By Holland

8. HOLLAND’S THEORY
Classification of Personalities
◦ Realistic
 Manual and mechanical competencies and interaction with machines, tools
and objects.
◦ Investigative
 Analytical, technical, scientific, and verbal competencies.
◦ Artistic
 Innovation or creative ability.
◦ Social
 Interpersonal competencies and skill in treating, healing or teaching others.
◦ Enterprising
 Skills in the persuasion and manipulation of other people.
◦ Conventional
 Clerical skills or skills in meeting precise standards for performance.

9. Example of Personality Type

10. A Little Exercise
See in class!

11. TRAIT THEORIES

12. Interpreting the Briggs-Myer
Extraversion: sociability, energized
by people, lonely when alone
(75%)
Sensation: practical, trusts facts;
learns through ex-perience;
wants to deal with what’s real
Thinking: prefers the objective,
logical, analytical
Judging: prefers closure, wants
deadlines, feels more
comfortable once a decision has
been made.
Intraversion: territorial, enjoys being
alone, private, drained by people
(25%)
Intuition: innovative, fantasizes;
future more attractive than the
present
Feeling: prefers the subjective,
personal, values
Perceiving: resists closure, wants
more & more data; values the
open-ended; pressure to decide
stressful

13. Scoring the Briggs-Myers
See in class!

14. Assessment of Personality
 Objective Tests of Personality
 Projective Tests of Personality
 Evaluation of Projective Tests

15. Objective Tests of Personality
 Objective personality tests measure
personality in a multiple choice or a
true or false format
◦ Allows for objective scoring of the test
◦ MMPI

16. Projective Tests of Personality
 Projective tests unstructured personality measures in
which a person is shown a series of ambiguous stimuli,
such as pictures, inkblots, or incomplete drawings.
◦ Rorschach Inkblot Test
◦ The Thematic Apperception Test

17. Projective Tests
 Psychological tests that use ambiguous or
unstructured stimuli; person needs to describe the
ambiguous stimuli or make up stories about them.
 Rorschach Technique: Developed by Swiss
psychologist Hermann Rorschach; contains 10
standardized inkblots (the “inkblot” test).
 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): Developed by
Henry Murray, personality theorist; projective
device consisting of 20 drawings (black and white)
of various situations; people must make up stories
about the people in it.

18. Projective Tests of Personality
An Inkblot Similar to One of the
Blots that Appear in the Rorschach
Inkblot Test

19. Assessing the Unconscious

20. More blots

21. Thematic Apperception Test

22. Thematic Apperception Test

23. Evaluation of Projective Tests
 Although these are widely used but
they have low reliability and validity
 It is assumed that one will project
aspects of their personalities into their
responses.

24. Personality Assessment
 Interview: Face-to-face meeting designed to gain
information about someone’s personality, current
psychological state, or personal history
◦ Unstructured Interview: Conversation is informal,
and topics are discussed as they arise
◦ Structured Interview: Follows a prearranged plan,
using a series of planned questions
 Halo Effect: Tendency to generalize a favorable or
unfavorable first impression to an entire personality
(make a good first impression)
 Direct Observation: Looking at behavior

25. Other Types of Personality Assessments
 Behavioral Assessment: Recording the frequency
of specific behaviors
 Situational Test: Real life situations are simulated
so that someone’s spontaneous reactions can be
recorded