Objective Personality Assessment

OBJECTIVE PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

PP7371, Summer I 2009

COURSE OUTLINE

Instructor: Daniel Vogel, Psy.D.

Class meeting time: Tuesdays 12:30-3:15 p.m. andFridays 9:15 a.m. - Noon

Hours: Fridays after noon or call to make an appointment

Phone: (312) 286-5039 (cell)

E-mail address:

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of this course is to develop the skills necessary to administer, score and interpret the major objective personality tests featured in therequired textbook, particularly the MMPI-2, MCMI-III, and CPI and a few other personality tests not featured in the book, integrate all evaluation data from background information, observations, history, and test data, and present this information in a psychological report. The course will introduce the interpretation of these tests and focus on how to apply clinical judgment to the data. An additional primary focus of the course will be developing the skills to communicate this information in clear, concise, written reports that address the referral questions and diagnostic issues. Dr. Vogel’s prime emphasis will be on understanding how to select an objective personality test, on hands-on use of all tests covered in the class, and as well as on obtaining practice in clinical conceptualization using test data. While students will become familiar with these tests at the conclusion of the course, Dr. Vogel will be intending to use these tests course mostly as a way of assisting students to understand when to select a test, validity issues pertaining to tests, psychological conceptualizations employed when using tests, the importance of integrating historical, collateral and observational data with the results of tests, and above to feel comfortable using any objective personality test that students might have available during their assessment practicum with only the test and manual handy. This course will emphasize the psychological research pertaining to the use of the three studied objective personality tests with different populations, as well as pertaining to the construction, assets and weaknesses of those tests, thus grounding objective personality assessment in the existing science of psychological assessment practice.

Program Outcomes: The Doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at Argosy University Chicago Campus is an APA accredited program (APA, 750 First St. NE, Washington, DC20002, 202-336-5500). This program is designed to educate and train students so that they may eventually be able to function effectively as clinical psychologists. To ensure that students are prepared adequately, the curriculum provides for the meaningful integration of theory, training and practice. The Clinical Psychology program at Argosy University Chicago Campus emphasizes the development of attitudes, knowledge, and skills essential in the formation of professional psychologists who are committed to the ethical provision of quality services. Specific objectives of the program include the following:

Goal 1: Prepare professional psychologists to accurately, effectively, and ethically select, administer, score, interpret, and communicate findings of appropriate assessment methods informed by accepted psychometric standards and sensitive to the diverse characteristics and needs of clients.

Objective 1a: Accurately and ethically administer and score various psychodiagnostic instruments.

Objective 1b: Accurately interpret and synthesize assessment data in the context of diversity factors, referral questions, and specific objectives of the assessment, and organize and communicate results in writing and orally.

Objective 1c: Examine psychometric properties of psychological assessment instruments, and use that knowledge to evaluate, select, administer, and interpret psychological tests and measures appropriate for the client, the referral question, and the objectives of the assessment.

Goal 2: Prepare professional psychologists to select, implement, and evaluate psychological interventions consistent with current ethical, evidence-based, and professional standards, within a theoretical framework, and with sensitivity to the interpersonal processes of the therapeutic relationship and the diverse characteristics and needs of clients.

Objective 2a: Synthesize the foundations of clinical psychology, including psychopathology, human development, diagnosis, diversity, ethics, and various therapeutic models in clinical applications.

Objective 2b: Select, plan, and implement ethical and evidence-based interventions with sensitivity to the diverse characteristics and needs of clients.

Objective 2c: Demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively implement and participate in psychological consultation and supervision.
Objective 2d: Demonstrate personal development and self-reflective capacity, including growth of interpersonal skills, and therapeutic relationships.

Goal 3: Prepare professional psychologists to analyze the complexity and multidimensionality of human diversity, and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to understand diverse worldviews and the potential meaning of social, cultural, and individual differences for professional psychological services.

Goal 4: Prepare professional psychologists to examine the historical context and the current body of knowledge of biological, cognitive, affective, developmental, and social bases of human functioning.

Goal 5: Prepare professional psychologists to critically evaluate the current and evolving body of scholarly literature in psychology to inform professional practice.

Goals legend

1 – Assessment

2 – Therapy

3 – Diversity

4 – Scientific Foundation

5 – Scholarship

Primary Course Objective / Program Goal / Method of Assessment
Identify how three major objective personality tests – MMPI (-2 and –RF versions), MCMI-3 and CPI – are constructed, selected, scored, designed in terms of underlying theory, administered and utilized in an integrative manner in a psychological report / Goals 1, 3, 4 and 5 / Exams; Psychological report writing using test data obtained from administering the course’s three tests to carefully selected individuals in the community; Critiques of scholarly articles; Critiquing psychological report data
Develop data integration skills / Goals 1, 3, 4 and 5 / Psychological report writing using test data obtained from administering the course’s three tests to carefully selected individuals in the community; Critiques of scholarly articles; Critiquing psychological report data

Required Reading:

Groth-Marnat, Gary (2003). Handbook of Psychological Assessment (4th Edition). Hoboken, NJ :John Wiley and Sons.

Additional Articles (assigned throughout the course)

The psychological report: A review of current controversies. Groth-Marnat, Gary; Horvath, Leah Suzanne; Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol 62(1), Jan 2006. pp. 73-81.

Psychometric evaluation of the restructured clinical scales of the MMPI-2.Simms, Leonard J.; Casillas, Alex; Clark, Lee Anna; Watson, David; Doebbeling, Bradley N.; Psychological Assessment, Vol 17(3), Sep 2005. pp. 345-358.

Use of the MMPI-2 in American Indians: I. Comparability of the MMPI-2 Between Two Tribes and With the MMPI-2 Normative Group.Robin, Robert W.; Greene, Roger L.; Albaugh, Bernard; Caldwell, Alex; Goldman, David; Psychological Assessment, Vol 15(3), Sep 2003. pp. 351-359.

Use of the MMPI-2 With Asian Populations.Butcher, James N.; Cheung, Fanny M.; Kim, Jeeyoung; Psychological Assessment, Vol 15(3), Sep 2003. pp. 248-256.

Ethnicity and psychopathology: A meta-analytic review of 31 years of comparative MMPI/MMPI-2 research.Hall, Gordon C. Nagayama; Bansal, Anita; Lopez, Irene R.; Psychological Assessment, Vol 11(2), Jun 1999. pp. 186-197.

A comparison of MMPI-2 validity in African American and Caucasian psychiatric inpatients.Arbisi, Paul A.; Ben-Porath, Yossef S.; McNulty, John; Psychological Assessment, Vol 14(1), Mar 2002. pp. 3-15.

Diagnostic validity statistics and the MCMI-III.Hsu, Louis M.; Psychological Assessment, Vol 14(4), Dec 2002. pp. 410-422.

Differences between Native Americans and Whites on the California Psychological Inventory.PreviewDavis, Gary L.; Hoffman, Richard G.; Nelson, Kathleen S.; PsychologicalAssessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 2(3), Sep 1990. pp. 238-242.

Test reviews: The California Psychological Inventory: I. As a measure of the normal personality.Crites, John O.; Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol 11(2), Sum 1964. pp. 197-202. [Review-Book]

Factor scales for the California Psychological Inventory.Nichols, Robert C.; Schnell, Richard R.; Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol 27(3), Jun 1963. pp. 228-235.

Improving readability of psychological reports.Harvey, Virginia Smith; Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 28(3), Jun 1997. pp. 271-274.

Teachers' observations and expectations of boys and girls as influenced by biased psychological reports and knowledge of the effects of bias.Mason, Emanuel J.; Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 65(2), Oct 1973. pp. 238-243.

An evaluation of psychological reports in a clinical setting.Garfield, Sol L.; Heine, Ralph W.; Leventhal, Morton; Journal of Consulting Psychology, Vol 18(4), Aug 1954. pp. 281-286.

Selections from manual of 4 studied tests (MCMI-III, CPI, MMPI-2 and MMPI-RF).

Selections from Craig, R.J.(2005). New directions in interpreting the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons.

Selections from Craig, R.J. (1999). Intepreting personality tests. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons.

Selections from Graham, J.R. (2005). MMPI-2: Assessing personaltiy and psychopathology. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

IMPORTANT: For this course, every student must select an adult in the community to administer three psychological tests to (spaced two weeks apart for the summer course). It is advisable that this person not be a relative or a friend, though a friend of a relative or a relative of a friend is often ideal. Please inform that person that confidentiality will be supremely guarded, and that they will be asked to complete some tests to aid in your education. We will discuss issues around testing this person in Class #1. However, begin selecting and asking permission of your candidate now so you know whom you will be testing when our course starts!

Library

All resources in ArgosyUniversity’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords.

Library Resources: ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at http://library.argosy.edu. Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at http://library.argosy.edu/misc/onlinedblist.html.

In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at http://library.argosy.edu/infolit/

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism. For the purpose of this course, plagiarism is considered direct copying from source books, fellow students, or computer generated printout interpretations. Students may also consult and receive feedback with regard to their writing style from the AcademicResourceCenter of the University or the teaching assistant.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

The ArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity

ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

TECHNOLOGY STATEMENT

ArgosyUniversity encourages the use of technology throughout the curriculum. Some of the assignments used in this class will include computer scored MMPI-2 and MMPI-A profiles. Students will be allowed to use computer generated interpretive reports for their homework and test assignments. However, according to APA ethics with respect to the use of these reports, students are not permitted to include statements copied directly from these reports in their own written work.

EVALUATION AND GRADING

Grades will be based on the following criteria:

3 Brief Case Presentations and Write-ups using a different test - 20% each = 60% of total grade

Write-Up and Presentation Integrating results from all three tests and other data (Final Paper) 30%

Class Participation and attendance-10% of your grade

Class Participation and Attendance: If you are unable to attend a class or you will be tardy, you must contact Dr. Vogel before the class begins or it will be considered unexcused. Class participation grading will be based upon asking or responding to questions, or otherwise taking part in discussions, during lectures. Students will not pass the course if they miss more than two classes, except under extreme circumstances that must be considered appropriate reasons by the school’s administration.

COURSE OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE:

Class #1:

Homework for this date: None, But buy book and materials from library

What we will do on this date:

Presentation by professor of salient issues relating to testing personality, and relating to the course itself.

Class #2:

Homework for this date:

Give MMPI2 to your "client" ASAP.

Read:

-Book pages 213-240

What we will do on this date:

Discussion of readings

Lecture on MMPI-2

Practice scoring MMPI2 and go over scales.

Dr. Vogel will deliver presentation on Data and Hypotheses

Class #3:

Homework for this date: Bring in text with info about your "client.”

Read:

Book pages 240 – 270

What we will do on this date:

Discussion of readings and presentations on data I.

Lecture #2 on MMPI-2 and MMPI-RF

Dr. Vogel will present a case that utilized an MMPI2 and MCMI3.

Class #4:

Homework for this date: Bring in text with info about your "client.”

Read:

Book pages 270-307

Use of the MMPI-2 With Asian Populations.Butcher, James N.; Cheung, Fanny M.; Kim, Jeeyoung; Psychological Assessment, Vol 15(3), Sep 2003. pp. 248-256.

What we will do on this date:

Presentations on data II

Dr. Vogel will present on how to use psychological education and knowledge of research to inform psychological test data in their interpretation and in making recommendations

Class #5:

Homework for this date: Paper I due (integrating history andpersonality analysis)

What we will do on this date:

Discussion of how to integrate personality test data with behavioral information

Class #6:

Homework for this date:

Give MCMI-3 to your "client"

Read:

Book (MCMI chapter) pages 311-329

Diagnostic validity statistics and the MCMI-III.Hsu, Louis M.; Psychological Assessment, Vol 14(4), Dec 2002. pp. 410-422.

Improving readability of psychological reports.Harvey, Virginia Smith; Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Vol 28(3), Jun 1997. pp. 271-274.

What we will do on this date:

Discussion of readings.

Discussion of MCMI-III scales, scoring issues, evolutionary model, etc.

Class #7:

Homework for this date:

Read:

Book (MCMI chapter) pages 329-353

What we will do on this date:

Discussion of readings.

Students bring in history with scoredMCMI-3.

Presentations on MCMI client data I.

Time permitting, Dr. Vogel will discuss objective tests that require collateral information.