Roosevelt University Personality Assessment -- PSYC 625

School of Psychology Summer, 2004

James P. Choca, PhD

Instructor information:

Office Location: Tower, Room 1857

Office hours: Wednesdays 3-6

Fridays 1-3

Other times by appointment

Office telephone number: (312) 341-6380

Home telephone number: (773) 472-7791

Pager: (773) 400-0384 (enter call back telephone number with the area code first)

Required books:

Butcher, J. (1999). Beginner’s Guide to the MMPI-2. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Choca, J. P. (2004). Interpretative Guide for the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (3^rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Ancillary readings:

Test manuals

Handouts

Course Overview:

Designed to explore the development, scoring, and interpretation of psychological inventories, the course will involve both lectures and test laboratory experiences. The major focus will be the two most widely used broad-spectrum inventories of emotional functioning (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI] and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory [MCMI]). Less known general instruments (e.g., the Personality Assessment Inventory [PAI]) will be covered in a more superficial manner. The work being done in the creation of a new computerized questionnaire, the Emotional Assessment System (EAS) will be presented. Also included for review will be instruments designed for a narrower age range (the adolescent version of the MMPI [MMPI-A], the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory [MACI]). Moreover, the course will examine tools that measure a narrower range of personality or psychopathology (e.g., the Alcohol Use Inventory, the Eating Disorder Inventory, the Myers Briggs, the Millon Index of Personality Styles [MIPS]). Discussions will address the impact individual differences of examinees (i.e., ethnic, racial, gender, age, and cultural variations). Students will be called upon to practice their literature search and presentation skills. Students will learn how to write test reports. Finally, the ethic issues involved with the practice of psychology and psychological testing will be discussed.

Course Grade:

The evaluation of the progress made will be a continuous process. Typically every class will include a test. Such tests will inquire about material the student was responsible for reading. Additionally, the tests will cover the material presented in class. There will be protocols to be scored and/or interpreted. Case write-ups that the students submit toward the end of the course will also be evaluated and counted as part of the weekly assessment. There will be weekly feedback of test performance. Eighty percent of the final grade will be based on the student’s performance on those tests. Ten percent of the final grade will be related to the adequacy with which the student scores the tests and can write a report with the findings. Students will take part in class debates, and will take responsibility for presenting one of the ‘minor’ instruments. Student performance on debates or presentations will contribute 10 percent of the grade. Work handed in late will be penalized by taking off 25% of the total number of points earned.

The Great Debates Series:

Each student will choose a side in one of the Great Debates. The student needs to research the chosen side so as to be able to present arguments in a scientifically convincing manner. Opinion is great, appeal to well-known authorities is better, presentation of supporting data is best. Most impressive is when data (numbers) are actually presented so that the class can see the information upon which the conclusions are based. Which of the two sides goes first is decided before hand by mutual agreement, or by the toss of a coin. Each side will have 20 minutes for their initial presentation, to be followed by up to 10 minutes for rebuttal. The debate will then be open to the rest of the class.

DATE	ASSIGNMENT	CLASS COVERAGE
5/24		Introduction to the course Film Viewing: As Good as it Gets Overview of psychological tests A historical view of the MMPI
6/7	Take MMPI-2 and MCMI-III as Melvin Udall Butcher: Chapters 1-4	Scoring the test (score Melvin) Scales of the MMPI-2 Profile codes The ‘cookbook’ approach; the actuarial approach
6/14	Take the EAS as Melvin Udall Butcher: Chapters 5-6	Case Presentation: Melvin Udall Validity and reliability Base rates and hit rates
6/21	Case write-up (Udall’s MMPI) Butcher: Chapters 7-9	Pathology and the MMPI Cultural differences and the MMPI *Great Debates in Psychology: To test or not to test Millon personality styles (with video)
6/28	Choca: Chapters 1-2	*Great Debates in Psychology: National versus Local norms MMPI-A Introduction to the MCMI-III Scoring and interpretation
7/12	Choca: Chapters 3-5	Individual differences and the MCMI Treatment Planning and the MCMI Therapy and the MCMI MIPS MAPI MACI MBHI Organizing and writing your report
7/19	Case write-up (Udall’s MCMI) Choca: pp. 107 to 114 Choca: Chapters 7-8	*Great Debates in Psychology: The MMPI versus the MCMI Translations and multicultural uses Personality Assessment Inventory Alcohol Use Inventory Emotional Assessment System
7/26	Choca: Chapters 9-10	Dr. Robert Craig covering Case examples of MMPI and MCMI
8/2	Choca: Chapter 11	Dr. Robert Craig covering Integrating the finding from different tests

8/9	EAS Manual Case write-up (Udall’s EAS) APA Ethical Standards for psychologists	A competent evaluation Case presentations using the EAS *Great Debates in Psychology: Objectives versus projectives Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-2) NEO-PI Myers Briggs Beck inventories
8/16	APA Ethical Standards for Testing	Ethical Issues

*Denotes that a student is responsible for this activity