Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

468 Chapter 
13 
Personality
R E C A P / E V A L U A T E / R E T H I N K 
K E Y T E R M S 
R E C A P 
How can we most accurately assess personality?
• Psychological tests such as the MMPI-2 are standard as-
sessment tools that measure behavior objectively. They 
must be reliable (measuring what they are trying to mea-
sure consistently) and valid (measuring what they are 
supposed to measure). (p. 461) 
What are the major types of personality measures?
• Self-report measures ask people about a sample range of 
their behaviors. These reports are used to infer the pres-
ence of particular personality characteristics. (p. 463)
• Projective personality tests (such as the Rorschach and 
the TAT) present an ambiguous stimulus; the test admin-
istrator infers information about the test-taker from his 
or her responses. (p. 465)
• Behavioral assessment is based on the principles of 
learning theory. It employs direct measurement of an in-
dividual’s behavior to determine characteristics related 
to personality. (p. 466)
E VA LU AT E
1.
is the consistency of a personality test; 
is the ability of a test to actually measure what 
it is designed to measure.
2.
are standards used to compare scores of 
different people taking the same test.
psychological tests p. 461
self-report measures p. 463
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) p. 463
test standardization p. 464
projective personality test p. 465
Rorschach test p. 466
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) p. 466
behavioral assessment p. 466
3.
Tests such as the MMPI-2, in which a small sample of 
behavior is assessed to determine larger patterns, are 
examples of