How accurate are personality tests? Report and reflect on your own experiences as a participant, referring to theories and current research In this assignment, you have an opportunity to evaluate the utility of personality tests based on relevant personality theories, research, and your own experiences as a participant. This report should be no longer than 2000 words (-/+ 10%, including in-text references/excluding the reference list).
You should choose one personality test to complete/reflect on. It could be a measure that you completed during the teaching weeks, or something that you find independently. Think about your experiences of completing the measure, and link this to the theories/models/research behind personality assessment. The task is to critically evaluate the utility of the test, linking the participant perspective to theories and research. The style of the report will be a mixture of first-person personal reflections and third-person academic writing. You should start each point in the main body with your (first-person) reflection (e.g., “I felt that I would have answered the questions differently when I was younger’; ‘I experienced...’). Following this, you should find explanations in the literature for your experience and evaluate it with third-person writing.
For example, does the test lack test-retest reliability? Or if the test-retest reliability exists, are the studies testing it just shorter-term investigations (e.g., a few months). Are there longitudinal studies using this questionnaire? Do these studies suggest that people score differently at a different age? You can choose which parts of the literature the third-person evaluation is based on. You should then conclude the theories/research with your first-person reflection- how do you explain your experiences in the light of literature? Each teaching week is potentially relevant to this assessment. You will have completed various psychometric measures and discussed/written reflections of them on your portfolio.
You should now revisit the formative discussions and think about how you could link the ideas to your chosen psychometric measure. Have a think about your experiences and choose the ones you would like to discuss. We would expect that students discuss between 2-4 points in their report
You could then link back to your experiences in the light of the research that you found. For example, although you may feel you have the tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner, perhaps research has found that social desirability bias is not an issue in this test. You could then briefly discuss why you felt it is an issue. For example, could it be linked to your age/background/mood etc? Alternatively, research could have found that social desirability bias is an issue with this particular test, in which case you could explore briefly how to counteract this bias.
Remember that this is a Master’s level assessment, which means that you can use your own judgement when deciding how to approach the topic. We do not have a prescribed list of what should be included in the report. It is your task to choose how to frame the report, starting with your experiences with a particular test you choose. We can however offer the following advice on how to structure your report:
