A method which involves asking a
participant about their feelings,
attitudes, beliefs etc
Weaknesses
Patients might also simpy be
mistaken or misremember the
material covered by the survey
Patients may exaggerate symptoms in order
to make their situation seem worse, or they
may under-report the severity or frequency of
symptoms in order to minimise their problems
Social desirability bias
Subjective
Researchers bias
Answers open to
interpretation
Misunderstanding
of the question
Strengths
Participants can describe experiences
in their own words (therefore more
detailed and in-depth data)
Large quantities of data can be
collected quickly and easily (from a
large number of people as well)
Projective
TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)
Evaluate a person's patterns of
thought, attitudes, observational
capacity, and emotional responses to
ambiguous test materials
In addition to assessing the content of the
stories that the subject is telling, the
examiner evaluates the subjects manner,
vocal tone, posture, hesitations, and other
signs of an emotional response
Ambiguous materials
a set of cards that portray
human figures in a variety
of settings and situations
The subject is asked to tell the examiner a
story about each card that includes the
following elements: the event shown in the
picture; what has lead up to it; what the
characters in the picture are feeling and
thinking; and the outcome of the event
Very Subjective
Rorschach inkblot
Consists of a series of ten inkblots
Participants asked to describe what they see
Complex scoring systems are used to
interpret the subjects' responses
Scores are based on various
characteristics of responses,
such as the originality of the
response and the area of the blot
described in the response
Provides information about the
subjects' personality traits and
the situational stresses the
subject may be experiencing
Subjective - open
for interpretation
Gordon Allport
He had lots of questions and
trawled through dictionaries
Cattell
16 factor personality test
His personality test consists of 164
statements about yourself, for each
indicate how accurate it is on the
scale of 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree)
Cattell found that variations in human
personality could be best explained by
a model that has 16 variables
(personality traits), using a statistical
procedure known as factor analysis
Warmth, Reasoning, Emotional Stability, Dominance,
Liveliness, Rule-Consciousness, Social Boldness, Sensitivity,
Vigilance, Abstractedness, Privateness, Apprehension,
Openness to Change, Self-Reliance, Perfectionism, Tension
McCrae & Costa
Big Five - OCEAN
Big Five personality traits
are five broad domains or
dimensions of personality
that are used to describe
human personality
Beneath each factor, a cluster of
correlated specific traits are found (eg
extraversion includes such related
qualities as gregariousness,
assertiveness, excitement seeking,
warmth, positive emotion)
Comprehensive, empirical,
data-driven research finding