ASSESSMENT of PERSONALITY (2):Neuropsychological Tests, Biofeedback

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Abnormal Psychology PSY404

LESSON 19

ASSESSMENT of PERSONALITY (2)

Projective Personality Tests

In projective tests, the person is presented with a series of ambiguous stimuli. The best known projective

test, introduced in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, is based on the use of inkblots.

Projective techniques such as the Rorschach test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), House Tree Person

(HTP) and Rotter's Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) were originally based on psychodynamic

assumptions about the nature of personality and psychopathology.

Considerable emphasis was placed on the importance of unconscious motivations --conflicts and impulses

of which the person is largely unaware. More recent approaches to the use of projective tests view the

person's descriptions of the cards as a sample of his or her perceptual and cognitive styles.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of a series of drawings that depict human figures in

various ambiguous situations. The person is asked to describe the identities of the people in the cards and to

make up a story about what is happening.

Advantages of Projective Tests

1. Some people may feel more comfortable talking in an unstructured situation than they would if they

were required to participate in a structured interview or to complete the lengthy MMPI.

2. Projective tests can provide an interesting source of information regarding the person's unique view of

the world, and they can be a useful supplement to information obtained with other assessment tools.

3. To whatever extent a person's relationships with other people are governed by unconscious cognitive

and emotional events, projective tests may provide information that cannot be obtained through direct

interviewing methods or observational procedures.

Limitations of Projective Tests

1. Lack of standardization in administration and scoring is a serious problem.

2. Little information is available on which to base comparisons to normal adults or children.

3. Some projective procedures, such as the Rorschach, can be very time-consuming.

4. The reliability of scoring and interpretation tends to be low.

5. Many self-report inventories, rating scales, and behavioral coding systems have been designed for the

assessment of marital relationships and family systems.

6. One popular self-report inventory is the Family Environment Scale (FES), which is composed of 90

truefalse items and was designed to measure the social characteristics of families.

Neuropsychological Tests

Neuropsychological tell us about the problems in personality or behavior caused by neurological damage in

the brain or alterations in brain activity due to head injury, brain tumors, brain malfunctions, blood vessel

diseases, alcoholism and infections in the brain. Neurological problems can be detected with brain X-Rays,

computerized axial tomogram CAT scan. Neuropsychological testing, measures individual's abilities in areas

such as language, attention and concentration, memory, motor skills, perceptual abilities and learning. In

other words, this method of testing assesses brain impairment by observing its affects on the person's ability

to perform certain tasks. Although, you do not see damage, you can see its effect. A fairly simple

neuropsychological test used with children is the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. A child is given a series

of cards on which various lines and shapes are drawn. The shapes include triangles, circle, rectangle and

squares. The task is to copy what is drawn on the card. The errors on the test are compared to test results of

normal children of the same age, if the number of errors exceeds a certain amount then brain impairment or

dysfunction is detected. The most popular advanced test of organic damage includes Leuria Nebraska

neuropsychological battery. Halstead Reitan Neuropsychological battery is another important test. The skills

measured in neuropsychological test are also assessed in intelligence test. There is a great deal of over

lapping in the two approaches.

Abnormal Psychology PSY404

There are some neuropsychological tests that help to identify neurological problems by measuring a

person's cognitive, perceptual and motor skills.

The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test.

This test consists of 9 cards, each displaying a simple design, the subject sees the designs

one at a time and copy each one on piece of paper. Later they try to reproduce a design

from their memory.

There are some other neuropsychological tests such as, Luria-Nebraska

Neuropsychological Battery

Strength of grip test, which compares the grip of right and left hands.

Psycho-physiological Assessment

Psycho-physiology refers to measurable changes in the nervous system that reflect emotional or

psychological events. The measurements may be taken either directly from the brain or from parts of the

body.

· The autonomic nervous system is highly reactive to environmental events and can provide useful

information about a person's internal states, such as emotion.

· Recording procedures have been developed to measure variables such as respiration rate, heart rate,

and skin conductance.

· As the person becomes aroused, activity levels change in these systems.

· Psycho-physiological measures can therefore, provide sensitive indices of the person's internal

state.

· It must be emphasized, however, that all of these measures do not act together.

· If several physiological responses are measured at the same time, they may not all demonstrate the

same strength, or even direction, of response.

· Moreover, physiological measures frequently disagree with the person's own subjective report.

· Therefore, as with other assessment procedures, physiological recordings should be used in

conjunction with other measures. EEG electroencephalogram, measuring electrical activity in the

brain related to the firing of specific groups of neurons reveals brain wave activity. The low voltage

electrical current going in the brain can be directly observed by EEG patterns. The EEG is one of

the primary diagnostic tools for measuring seizure disorders.

Galvanic Skin Response (GSR)

A galvanometer with sensitive electrodes is attached to the forehead or palms of the hands, gives reading

when sweat breaks out as an individual is passing through an emotional state. So GSR is a measure of sweat

glands activity controlled by peripheral nervous system. In certain disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder the patient experiences severe emotional reaction, which is directly measured by GSR.

Biofeedback

In biofeedback, the levels of physiological responding such as blood pressure, readings are told to

the patient provided by BP apparatus so that client can try to control his blood pressure without the

readings being provided. So biofeedback teaches, the client to control blood pressure, heart beat, body

temperature and physical pain by gaining conscious control over involuntary indicators . Those who master

it are called Swami's.

Advantages of Physiological Procedures

1. Psycho-physiological recording procedures do not depend on self-report and, therefore, may be

less subject to voluntary control.

2. Some of these measures can be obtained while the subject is sleeping or while the subject is actively

engaged in some other activity.

Limitations of Physiological Procedures

1. The recording equipment and electrodes may be frightening or intimidating to some people.

2. There are generally low correlations between different autonomic response systems.

Abnormal Psychology PSY404

3. Physiological reactivity and the stability of physiological response systems vary from person to

person.

4. Physiological responses can be influenced by many other factors. Some are person variables, such

as age and medication, as well as psychological factors, such as being self-conscious or fearing loss

of control.

Brain Imaging Techniques

· Precise measures of brain structure can be obtained with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

· In MRI, images are generated using a strong magnetic field rather than X rays.

· Positron emission tomography (PET) is one scanning technique that can be used to create

functional brain images.

· This procedure is much more expensive than the other imaging techniques because it requires a

nuclear cyclotron to produce special radioactive elements.

· The newest and most exciting method of imaging brain functions involves functional MRI

(FMRI).

· In FMRI, a series of images is acquired in rapid succession.

· Small differences in signal intensity from one image to the next provide a measure of moment-to-

moment changes in the amount of oxygen in blood flowing to specific areas of the brain.

Advantages of Brain Imaging Techniques

1. In clinical practice, imaging techniques can be used to rule out various neurological conditions that

might explain behavioral or cognitive deficits.

2. Procedures such as FMRI and PET can help research investigators explore the relation between

brain functions and specific mental disorders.

Limitations of Brain Imaging Techniques

1. These procedures are relatively expensive--especially PET scans and FMRI--and some procedures

must be used cautiously because the patient may be exposed to radioactive substances.

We should not assume that all cognitive processes, emotional experiences, or mental disorders are

necessarily linked to activity (or the absence of activity) in a specific area of the brain.

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