PSY 246: Personality Psychology

Personality Assessments

An important part of this course is understanding personality assessment.  In order to do this more effectively, you will be required to take a series of personality assessments for yourself.  This will allow you to evaluate each approach and to possibly get a better understanding of your own personality.  You will have an opportunity to complete Kelly's Repetory Grid, the Big 5, the self vs. peer assessment, two cards from the Thematic Apperception Test, and an autobiographical statement.  You are required to turn all of these in on the last day of class. As you complete these tests you should be considering several factors such as; did they succeed or fail in capturing your personality, what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach, does the assessment get at underlying thoughts, is it subject to social desirability, etc. 

Personality assessment checklist (make sure you have completed and scored all five of these by the last day of class):

Due in class on the last day of class (turned in during class).

• TAT (Thematic apperception test) - On a blank piece of paper write the letters "TAT" at the top. Also put the last four digits of your student ID and a pseudonym (a made-up name) in the top right hand corner of the page. After clicking on the following link (photo1a) you will write a brief story (about 1 paragraph) that describes what is happening in the picture. The story should include what (if anything) the characters are thinking and feeling, what were the events that led up to the picture, and what is the likely outcome.  On the same page, you will then repeat this assignment for the second picture (photo1b). That is, you should have two stories, each approximately 1 paragraph in length.
• Autobiographical statement - Write a 1-2 page autobiographical statement (completed at home as assigned homework). 
• Repetory Grid - completed in class
• Self-vs. Peer rating using the BFI-10 - completed in class
• Objective assessment of the "Big 5" - completed in class

All assessments must be scored to receive full credit, and most of the scoring will be completed in class.