Public Description of Personality Assessment

Personality Assessment is a proficiency in professional psychology that involves the administration, scoring, and interpretation of empirically supported measures of personality traits and styles in order to: 

• Refine clinical diagnoses; 

• Structure and inform psychological interventions; and 

• Increase the accuracy of behavioral prediction in a variety of contexts and settings (e.g., clinical, forensic, organizational, educational).

Specialized Knowledge 

• Psychometric properties of test instruments which demonstrate their construct validity and clinical utility 

• Elements of psychometric theory, including issues of reliability, validity, reference group norms, limits of generalizability and test construction 

• Theories of intelligence and human cognition, including the role of race and ethnicity in intellectual evaluation 

• Theory, administration and interpretation of 

  • performance-based measures of personality such as the Rorschach Inkblot Test and other major free-response tests; and 

  • major self-report inventories, such as the MMPI-2 or the PAI, including the applicability of specific population norms to individual clients. 

• Appropriate selection of instruments to answer specific referral questions including the construction of a test battery 

• Data integration from multiple data sources, including interview, psychometric tests and collateral sources 

• Communication of assessment results to different referring individuals and agencies and feedback to clients themselves 

• The relationship between assessment and intervention 

• Ethics, laws and regulations pertaining to Personality Assessment in general and in particular settings

Skills and Procedures Utilized 

• Administration of and scoring tests properly in accordance with established standardized procedures 

• Analysis and integration of test data with other relevant information, including findings from structured diagnostic interviews, unstructured clinical interviews, historical information, data provided by informants familiar with the person being evaluated and behavioral observations 

• Administration and interpretation of cognitive assessment instruments 

• Interviewing and case conceptualization 

• Selection, administration and interpretation of assessment instruments appropriate to specific populations and problems 

• Integration of information from multiple data sources, including personality tests, into coherent and relevant reports that facilitate appropriate interventions and estimate likely outcomes 

• Provision of feedback that is clear, useful and responsive to the client or patient