Personality Assessments

Psychologists use the method of personality assessments to test personalities. Testing personalities is much like testing intelligence and because it measures something that is intangible and invisible it can be quite the difficult task. There are different theories of personalities and different methods of assessing those personalities; however some methods of assessment are shared between theories. The four theories are psychodynamic, humanistic, trait and social learning and all have different roots. The methods of assessment are projective tests, personal interview, objective tests, and direct observations. The projective tests consist of simple ambiguous stimuli that can elicit an unlimited number of responses. The personal interview is used to obtain information from the person being interviewed and can be structured or unstructured. An objective test is generally a written test that is administered and scored according to a standard procedure. Usually the tests require simple yes or no responses or for one answer among many to be chosen and are widely used. Direct observation observes a person’s actions in everyday situations over a long period. To assess the psychodynamic theory the methods of projective tests and personal interviews is used. To assess the humanistic theory objective tests and personal interview are used. To assess the trait theory objective tests are used. Social learning theory is assessed with the use of interviews, objective tests and observations. Direct observation observes a person’s actions in everyday situations over a long period. To assess the psychodynamic theory the methods of projective tests and personal interviews is used. To assess the humanistic theory objective tests and personal interview are used. To assess the trait theory objective tests are used. Social learning theory is assessed with the use of interviews, objective tests and