Class No. 2: Objective Personality Assessment

I. Course Description
This course introduces the student to the major approaches and techniques for objective personality assessment in adults. Topics covered include general psychometric concepts and primary principles and issues in objective assessment and techniques of personality assessment. The primary emphasis will be on the MMPI-2, with an overview of other commonly used measures of objective personality assessment. The class will include a laboratory in which skills in administration and interpretation can be practiced.

II. Course Objectives: In this course, students will be presented with:

1. The basic foundation of the scientific, empirical, statistical, and psychometric concepts underlying psychological testing in general and objective personality testing in particular.

2. The history, method and place of objective assessment in clinical research and practice.

3. Skills and opportunities necessary to develop an empathic understanding of the task and challenge facing the individual during the process of testing.

4. Opportunities for the development of competency in the administration, scoring, analysis, and interpretation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Second Edition (MMPI-2), and the development of skill in writing a concise, relevant report based on MMPI-2 data.

5. Opportunities for the development of competency in the administration, scoring, analysis, and interpretation of the Personality Assesment Inventory (PAI), and the development of skill in writing a concise, relevant report based on PAI data.

6. Opportunities for the development of basic familiarity in the administration and interpretation of additional major objective personality measures including the MMPI-A, the MCMI-III, and the MACI-II.

7. Specialized objective measures designed to assess specific issues such as malingering, parenting stress, depression, and anxiety states.

8. The strengths and weaknesses of objective assessment, including computerized interpretative services, and student familiarity with reference materials for investigating test utility and validity.

9. The understanding of the appropriate selection of objective measures given the individual’s particular background (familial, cultural, gender, social, physical, sexual, racial and religious), circumstances, presentation and referral question and to develop an awareness of how the above impacts not only on test selection, but administration, scoring and interpretation issues as well.

10. The course will emphasize a thorough grounding in the knowledge and application of the APA ethical principles related to psychological assessment.

11. Finally, the course will seek to develop basic competence in the integration of objective interpretive data in providing a written report based on a battery of objective tests.