EPPP - Psychological Assessment - Measures of Personality, Clinical Assessment

Hypochondriasis - Hs - preoccupation with physical symptoms

Developed for deriving psychiatric diagnoses, and an empirical criterion keying strategy was used to construct the test's original scales

ages 18+ with a reading level of at least 5th grade 

MMPI-A for ages 14 - 18

Depression - D - depression, hopelessness, dissatisfaction with self

Hysteria - Hy - repression, denial, immaturity, somatic complaints

Psychopathic Deviate - Pd - antisocial behaviors, rebelliousness, social alienation

Masculinity-Femininity - Mf - stereotypic masculine or feminine interests

Paranoia - Pa - paranoia, cynicism, interpersonal sensitivity

Psychasthenia - Pt - anxiety, obsessions, compulsions

Schizophrenia - Sc - psychosis, unusual though processes, social alienation

Hypomania - Ma - unstable mood, impulsivity, grandiosity, flight of ideas

Social Introversion - Si - shyness, social withdrawal/avoidance

Lie 

High = present self in a favorable light or lack of insight into own motivation. associated with reduced ability to benefit from therapy 

Low = frankness in responding, exaggeration of negative characteristics, or independence

Frequency 

High = responded in a deviant or atypical manner and suggests an attempt to fake bad, deliberate malingering, gross eccentricity, significant pathology, random responding, or responding to all items as either true or false 

Low = attempt to fake good, a tendency toward social conformity, a denial of problems, or an absences of significant psychopathology 

T-score of 100 or more = invalid profile

Correction 

High = defensiveness or denial, a desire to fake good, or responding false to all items and is associated with resistance and poor treatment prognosis 

Very low = suggests excessive frankness, self-criticism, or a desire to fake bad

Considered to be a suppressor variable since scores correlate with defensiveness, education level, and socioeconomic status

Cannot say 

high = reading difficulties, indecisiveness, distractibility, rebelliousness, or defensiveness

30+ items - invalid profile

F back

used to identify an attempt to fake bad on the last 197 items and interpreted the same as the F scale

variable response inconsistency 

a measure of consistency in responding and consists of paired items that would be expected to be answered in the same direction.

T-Score of 80+ = invalid profile

true response inconsistency 

consists of paired items that are the opposite of each other. Provides an additional measure of consistency in responding and is interpreted in the same way as VRIN

Infrequent Pathology

consists of items that were infrequently endorsed by psychiatric patients, and a high score indicates an attempt to fake bad even if the examinee is a psychiatric patient.

Raw scores are converted to T-scores that have a mean of 50 and SD of 10; and a T-score of 65 or higher is considered clinically significant. Interpretation begins with validity scales

depression, worry, pessimism, hypochondriasis

apathy, depression, anxiety, psychosomatic complaints, immaturity

depression, hopelessness, extreme sensitivity to criticism, paranoia

agitated depression, bipolar disorder, psychosomatic complaints

passive-aggressive, anger, poor insight, poor impulse control

hostile, distrustful, resentful, immature, manipulative

impulsive, narcissistic, antisocial behavior, substance abuse

psychosis, significant emotional turmoil, poor social adjustment

egocentrism, grandiosity

based on Murray's personality theory which distinguishes between 15 basic needs. Questions are forced choice picking between statements from the 15 basic needs

constructed on the basis of factor analysis, which identified 16 primary personality traits

186 multiple choice items

assesses the big five personality traits - extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience

based on the work of Carl Jung and describes personality in terms of four bipolar dimensions - Introversion-Extraversion (I, E), Sensing-Intuition (S, N), Thinking-Feeling (T, F), and Judging-Perceiving (J, P)

124 forced choice items and classified in term of 16 personality types

Based on a belief that the way a person interprets an inkblot reveals something about their mental state. 

10 cards, each containing a bilaterally symmetrical inkblot printed on a white background. 

5 cards are black or grey, 2 contain areas of bright red, and 3 contain pastel colors. 

ages 2+

location - where the perception is located in the inkblot

determinants - what determined the response - form, movement, color, shading 

form quality - how similar the perception is to the actual shape of the inkblot 

content - human, animal, nature 

popularity - how often certain response occur

Based on Murray's theory of needs. 20 cards where the person is asked to make up a story about each picture and to include information about what is happening in the picture, what led up to the situation, how the people feel, and how the story ends. 

May be useful for gross diagnostic distinctions (schizophrenia vs neurosis) and as a wide-band measure of personality that provides information on such factors as cognitive style, emotional reactivity, and defensive structure

unambiguous 

logical content method

empirical criterion keying

test-taking attitudes

L

F

K

65

profile 

4/9

Conversion V

EPPS (edwards personal preference schedule) 

MBTI (myers-brigs)

openness to experience 

lexical

free association 

inquiry

determinants 

confabulatory

TAT -thematic apperception test

used to detect the presence of brain damage and determine its severity and possible location. ages 15+

assesses memory, concentration, abstract reasoning, language, visual-motor integration, and manual dexterity 

often combined with the WAIS, WISC, or MMPI

contains 269 items grouped into 11 content scales that asses various aspects of neuropsychological functioning (e.g., motor, visual-spatial, memory, language).

scores range from 0-2 with 2 indicating brain injury

A brief measure of visual-motor integration for people ages 3+ and is used as a measure of visual-motor development and screening tool for impairment. 

contains 16 cards with geometric figures.

administration is 2 phases: copy and recall

used to assess visual memory, visual perception, and visual-motor skills for the purpose of identifying brain damage for ages 8+

10 cards with geometric pictures people are required to reproduce from memory

used to assess the visual-motor integration skills for people 2+ to identify deficits that are associated with neurological impairments or might lead to learning and behavior problems.

ages 6:6 - 80:11 and used to assess the ability to form abstract concepts and shift cognitive strategies in response to feedback.

sensitive to frontal lobe damage, and impaired performance has been linked to alcoholism, autism, schizophrenia, depression, and malingering.

assesses the degree to which an examinee can suppress a prepotent (habitual) response in favor of an unusual one and measures cognitive flexibility, selective attention, and response inhibition. 

sensitive to frontal lobe damage, and poor performance has been associated with ADHD, mania, depression, and schizophrenia

a variation of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle and measures attention, memory, and executive functioning. Requires people to move disks, one at a time, so that they end up in a particular goal configuration

Poor performance has been linked to frontal lobe damage, ADHD, autism, and depression

a measure of memory for older adolescents and adults and consists of six primary subtests that measure various aspects of memory as well as an optimal brief cognitive status subtest that can be used as a screening test for cognitive impairment

Can be compared to the WAIS General Ability Index

was developed as a screening test for cognitive impairment for older adults. Sometimes used as a diagnostic tool for dementia, but not developed for this purpose. 

Max score of 30 and a score of 23 or 24 is ordinarily used as a cutoff, with scores below indicating cognitive impairment

used to assess level of consciousness following brain injury and involves rating the patient in terms of three responses: visual response (eye opening), best motor response, and best verbal response. 

can score from 3 to 15, with a lower score indicating more severe brain injury and a score of 3 to 8 indicating an unconscious state.

consists of 21 items that address mood, cognitive, behavioral, and physical aspects of depression.

• Scores:
• 0-13 = minimal depression
• 14-19 = mild depression
• 20-28 = moderate depression
• 69-63 = severe depression

incorporates a number of techniques and informants. 

begin with a broad-band scale that assesses general behavioral and psychological functioning and helps distinguish ADHD from other disorders such as the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC-2) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL. 

Narrow-band scales are then used to obtain detailed information on the individuals symptoms such as the ADHD Rating Scale IV and Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scales (ADDES-III)

Several measures available such as:

• Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS2)
• Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC)
• Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R)

found IQ tests to be racially and culturally biases and discriminatory against Blacks and stopped their use to place Black is special ed

used to evaluate personal and social skills of children and adults with ID, ASD, ADHD, brain injury, or dementia and create educational and treatment plans for ages birth to 90

assess adaptive functioning in five areas - personal self-sufficiency, community self-sufficiency, personal-social responsibility, social adjustment, and personal adjustment

B-R (Halstead-Reitan)

0 - 1.0

visual-motor

neuropsychological impairment 

recall

frontal 

prepotent

cognitive impairment 

visual construction

visual response, best motor response, and best verbal response

Rancho Scale

29-63

hopelessness

broad-band

least restrictive 

IEP

Larry P. v. Riles

personal and social skills (adaptive behavior)

validity 

forced-choice

A

Scale 0 (social introversion) assesses the social introversion-extroversion dimension of the MMPI-2, with high scores reflecting social withdrawal.

Answer B: Scale 1 (hypochondriasis) assesses a wide variety of vague and nonspecific concerns about bodily functioning. This scale is designed to measure neurotic concern regarding bodily functions.

Answer C: Scale 6 (paranoia) measures interpersonal sensitivity, moral self-righteousness, and suspiciousness.

Answer D: Scale 9 (hypomania) assesses the milder degrees of manic excitement, characterized by an elated but unstable mood, psychomotor excitement, and flight of ideas.

B

The MMSE is a test of cognitive function among older adults that includes tests of orientation, attention, memory, and language.

Answer A: The CVLT-II is a neuropsychological assessment of verbal learning and memory deficits. It measures episodic verbal learning and memory.

Answer C: The HVLT is a word-learning test measuring episodic verbal memory.

Answer D: The Buschke Selective Reminding Test (SRT) measures verbal learning and memory during a multiple-trial list learning task, which allows for analysis of encoding, storage, and retrieval data.

D

The PIY is a self-report measure for individuals aged 9–19 years that assesses emotional and behavioral adjustment, family interaction, and neurocognitive and attention-related academic functioning.

Answer A: The SBS is a comprehensive evaluation of student behavior given to teachers, reflecting academic achievement, adjustment problems, and behavioral assets for those in kindergarten through grade twelve.

Answer B: The PAI is an adult personality self-report inventory that provides information relevant for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning, and screening for psychopathology.

Answer C: The MMPI-A is designed to measure the characteristics of personality and psychopathology among adolescents.

B

Sensorium might refer to hearing, smell, vision, and touch and might range from being clouded to clear. It can also refer to the individual's level of consciousness, which may vary from hyperarousal and excitement to drowsiness and confusion.

Answer A: Orientation is the ability of individuals to be oriented to person, place, and time (current and past events). Disorientation is most consistent with organic conditions.

Answer C: Perception is diagnostically important to note, specifically with regard to delusions or hallucinations. The presence of auditory hallucinations is most characteristic of those with schizophrenia, whereas vivid visual hallucinations are more characteristic of persons with organic brain syndromes.

Answer D: Language relates to the words used, including having difficulty with word-finding, using complex and appropriate vocabulary, or misusing words often

C

CogScreen was designed to meet the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) need for an instrument that could detect subtle changes in cognitive functioning. This neurocognitive test battery is used for medical recertification evaluation of pilots with known or suspected neurological and/or psychiatric conditions.

Answer A: The UTC-PAB is an evaluation of cognitive performance in the chemical defense biomedical drug screening program. Information processing, decision making, perception, and mental workload capacity are among the processes and abilities assessed with the battery.

Answer B: The NES includes over a dozen neurobehavioral tests of psychomotor speed and control, perpetual speed, learning, attention, and affect. This battery is sensitive to the impact of environmental toxins.

Answer D: The CANTAB includes sensitive, precise, and objective measures of cognitive function, correlated to neural networks. This battery of tests detects and locates brain damage, including early signs of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases.

D

The MMSE is a widely used test of cognitive function among the elderly that includes tests of orientation, attention, memory, and language. It is the most commonly used measure for complaints of problems with memory and other mental abilities.

Answer A: The Mini-Cog is a 3-minute test that is used to detect cognitive impairment in older adults. It consists of a 3-item recall test for memory and a scored clock drawing test.

Answer B: The ACE was developed to differentiate Alzheimer's disease from frontotemporal dementia and to detect the early stages of these dementias.

Answer C: The WAIS-IV is a measure of intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.

D

The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was developed to assess dementia-related behavioral symptoms, which other assessments did not sufficiently address. Domains addressed include delusions, hallucinations, agitation/aggression, dysphoria, anxiety, euphoria, apathy, disinhibition, irritability/lability, aberrant motor activity, nighttime behavioral disturbances, and appetite/eating abnormalities.

Answer A: The Mini-Cog is a brief test of cognition used to determine if an individual may be in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease or related dementia. It includes a three-word recall and the Clock Drawing Test.

Answer B: The SIB was developed for individuals who are too impaired to complete standard neuropsychological tests and is appropriate for adults age 51 to 91 years old.

Answer C: The BCSE helps evaluate global cognitive functioning in patients with dementia, mild mental retardation, traumatic brain injuries, or suspected Alzheimer's disease.

C

The Stroop measures cognitive flexibility, selective attention, and response inhibition. This test is, therefore, sensitive to frontal lobe damage, and poor performance has been associated with ADHD, mania, depression, and schizophrenia.

Answer A: The temporal lobe is responsible for creating and preserving both conscious and long-term memory. Therefore, it is not sensitive to this test.

Answer B: The parietal lobe processes sensory information it receives from the outside world, mainly relating to touch, taste, and temperature. This area of the brain would not be sensitive to the Stroop.

Answer D: The cerebellum is responsible for coordinating voluntary movements, balance, coordination, and posture. This area of the brain would not be tested using the Stroop test.

D

Confabulation on the Rorschach Inkblot Test is overgeneralizing a part of the inkblot to the whole. When individuals do this, it suggests brain damage, emotional disturbance, or an intellectual disability.

Answer A: The use of white spaces suggests oppositional tendencies.

Answer B: When an individual gives many color responses, it indicates emotionality and impulsivity.

Answer C: A large number of whole responses suggests integrated, organized thinking.

B

Go-No-Go tests measure response inhibition. For these tests, individuals respond to certain stimuli ("go" stimuli) and make no response for others ("no-go" stimuli). The dependent measure in Go-No-Go tests is the commission error rate (making a "go" response on "no-go" trials); fewer errors signify better response inhibition.

Answer A: The clock drawing test is a tool used to screen for signs of neurological problems, such as cognitive impairment and dementia. Placement of the numbers around the circle requires visual-spatial, numerical sequencing, and planning abilities.

Answer C: The Western Aphasia Battery assesses linguistic skills most frequently affected by aphasia as well as nonlinguistic skills, and provides differential diagnosis information for individuals ages 18 to 89 years.

Answer D: Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination is a screening test composed of tests of attention, orientation, memory, and language, as well as visual perceptual and visuospatial skills. It is useful in the detection of cognitive impairment, particularly Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.

B

An elevated score on the VRIN scale suggests an invalid profile. This scale is a measure of consistency in responding and consists of paired items that would be expected to be answered in the same direction.

Answer A: The TRIN scale consists of paired items that are the opposite of each other. It provides an additional measure of consistency in responding and is interpreted in the same way as the TRIN scale.

Answer C: The Fb scale is used to identify an attempt to "fake bad" on the last 197 items of the test and is interpreted similarly to the F scale.

Answer D: The Fp scale consists of items that were infrequently endorsed by psychiatric patients, and a high score indicates an attempt to "fake bad" even if the examinee is a psychiatric patient.

A

Projective hypothesis refers to the notion that when confronted with ambiguous and unstructured stimuli, the responses elicited by a person reflect one's unconscious needs, feelings, anxieties, motives, thoughts, conflicts, and prior behavioral conditioning.

Answer B: Free association is the expression of consciousness without censorship as an aid in gaining access to unconscious processes.

Answer C: Confabulation is a type of memory error in which gaps in an individual's memory are unconsciously filled with fabricated, misinterpreted, or distorted information.

Answer D: The logical content method refers to test items that are derived based on reason and deductive logic, which may or may not be guided by a theory of personality.

C

• The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is for individuals ages 6:6 to 80:11 and is used to assess the ability to form abstract concepts and shift cognitive strategies in response to feedback. The WCST is sensitive to frontal lobe damage, and impaired performance has been linked to alcoholism, autism, schizophrenia, depression, and malingering. 
• Answer A: The TOMM is a visual recognition test designed to help distinguish malingering from genuine memory impairments in individuals age 16 to 84.

Answer B: The HRNB is a battery of neuropsychological tests designed to evaluate the functioning of the brain and nervous system in individuals aged 15 years and older.

Answer D: The Vineland-3 is a standardized assessment tool that utilizes a semi-structured interview to measure adaptive behavior and support the diagnosis of intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and developmental delays.

B

The PCL-R is a diagnostic tool that measures psychopathic and antisocial behaviors. It is used for legal, clinical, and research purposes as an indicator of potential risks posed by subjects or prisoners.

Answer A: The PAI is an objective personality assessment that provides information relevant for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning, and screening for psychopathology.

Answer C: The MMPI-2 is a personality inventory that has broad applications across a range of mental health, medical, substance abuse, forensic, and personnel screening settings as a measure of psychological maladjustment.

Answer D: The TAT is a projective measure for the assessment of children and adults. It is designed to reveal an individual's perception of interpersonal relationships.

D

The validity scale configuration where the L scale and the K scale are below a T score of 50 and the F scale is at or above a T score of 65 is the most frequently encountered array in clinical settings. Clients with this configuration are admitting to personal and emotional difficulties, are requesting assistance, and are unsure of their resources to deal with these problems. Under most conditions, this configuration is most desirable for any form of psychological intervention or treatment.

Answer A: For the validity scale configuration where the L scale and the K scale are elevated above a T score of at least 60 and the F scale is below a T score of 50, clients are attempting to avoid or deny unacceptable feelings, impulses, and problems. That is, they are trying to present themself in the best possible light. These clients may tend to be simplistic and view the world in terms of extreme goods or bad.

Answer B: The configuration where the L scale is less than the F scale and the F scale is less than the K scale is typical of an individual who has the appropriate resources for dealing with problems and who is not experiencing any stress or conflict at present.

Answer C: In this configuration, the L scale is greater than the F scale, which is greater than the K scale. The clients who produce this type of validity configuration are likely to be naive and unsophisticated but answer questions in an attempt to "look good."

C

The TAT is based on Henry Murray's theory of needs. Murray's system involves identifying the story's "hero" and evaluating the intensity, frequency, and duration of needs, environmental press, theme, and outcomes expressed in each story.

Answer A: The Stroop Color-Word Association Test assesses the degree to which an examinee can suppress a habitual response in favor of an unusual one.

Answer B: The Rancho Scale of Cognitive Functioning - Revised was developed to measure cognitive recovery following a head injury. It includes scales that assess levels of functioning.

Answer D: The Halstead-Reitan is a neuropsychological battery. Interpretation of an examinee’s performance on the H-R involves considering performance on the individual tests as well as overall performance, which is summarized by calculating the Halstead Impairment Index (HII).

B

Narrow-band behavior rating scales include items that sample from a small number of domains and are not intended to be global measures of an individual's behavior.

Answer A: Broad-band behavior rating scales usually include more items, a sample from a wider spectrum of behaviors, and are often used to screen for more than one disorder or behavioral syndrome.

Answer C: A prepotent response is a response for which immediate reinforcement (positive or negative) is available or is associated with that response. Executive functions tend to be invoked when it is necessary to override prepotent responses that would otherwise occur automatically.

Answer D: Visual responses are reactions produced in response to visual stimuli.

A

The Bender-Gestalt II is a brief measure of visual-motor integration for individuals ages three and older and is used as a measure of visual-motor development and screening tool for neuropsychological impairment. It is considered a valid screening device for brain damage, but to avoid false negatives, it should be used in conjunction with other sources of information. It is not accurate for identifying personality characteristics or for making psychiatric diagnoses.

Answer B: The Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) is used to assess visual memory, visual perception, and visual-motor skills to identify brain damage in individuals ages eight and older.

Answer C: The Beery VMI is used to assess the visual-motor integration skills of individuals ages two and older to identify deficits that are associated with neurological impairments or might lead to learning and behavior problems.

Answer D: The WCST is used to assess the ability to form abstract concepts and shift cognitive strategies in response to feedback in individuals ages six to 80. This test is sensitive to frontal lobe damage, and impaired performance has been linked to alcoholism, autism, schizophrenia, depression, and malingering.

C

The GCS is used to objectively describe the extent of impaired consciousness in all types of acute medical and trauma patients. The scale assesses individuals according to three aspects of responsiveness: eye-opening, motor, and verbal responses.

Answer A: The Conners CPT is a task-oriented computerized assessment of attention-related problems in individuals aged eight and older.

Answer B: The TMT is a neuropsychological test of visual attention and task switching sometimes used to screen for dementia.

Answer D: The MMSE is a widely used test of cognitive function, including orientation, attention, memory, language, and visual-spatial skills.