Psychology 3580F-001
Research in Personality Assessment
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
Addresses reliability and validity issues as well as several contemporary topics in assessment
such as multitrait-multimethod analysis, personality testing in personnel selection, and control of
dissimulation or "faking" of personality test responses. The course includes a hands-on research
component.
Prerequisites: Psychology 2800E and 2810, plus registration in third or fourth year
Honors Specialization in Psychology or Honors Specialization in Developmental Cognitive
Neuroscience.
Third or fourth year Psychology Majors and Psychology Special Students who earn 70% or higher in Psychology 2820E (or 60% or higher in Psychology 2800E and 2810) also may enrol in this course.
Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enrol in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Elizabeth Kelly
Office: SSC 7440
Email: ekelly6@uwo.ca
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:30am-12:30pm and by appointment.
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Laura Johnson
Office: SSC 9244
Email: ljohn47@uwo.ca
Office Hours: By appointment.
Time and Location of Lecture: Tuesdays 9:30am-11:30am (STVH 2166)
Time and Location of Lab: Thursdays 9:30am-11:30am (STVH 2166)
Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western
http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
There is no textbook for this course. Weekly readings (book chapters and journal articles) are required and will be posted on OWL. Note that the first three entries on the schedule (the book chapters) will be posted in the ‘Course readings’ section of OWL. The remainder of the entries (the journal articles) will be posted in the ‘Resources’ section of OWL in a folder labelled ‘Readings’.
Other course information and materials, such as announcements, grades, essay/presentation instructions, lab documents, and lecture slides will also be posted on OWL. Note that lecture slides are outlines only and cannot take the place of attending class.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course familiarizes the student with research on several key topics in the assessment of individual differences such as the use of personality assessment in pre-employment testing; “faking” of personality test responses and control of “faking” of personality test responses; multitrait-multimethod analysis. In so doing, this course will improve skills in evaluating research in the assessment of individual differences and developing research ideas. The lab component of the course is designed to develop applied and conceptual skills relevant to the assessment of individual differences.4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
After successfully completing this course, students should be able to:
identify and describe important personality traits that underlie performance in a variety of jobs
apply concepts and theories in personality assessment to real world problems
generate new testable hypotheses regarding the assessment of personality
design research to test hypotheses regarding the assessment of personality
describe and explain important measurement issues relevant to the assessment of personality
5.0 EVALUATION
Your final grade in this course will be based on marks received for a test, an essay and presentation, participation, and a lab component.
Test. There will be one 2-hour test consisting of short answer and essay type questions. The test will cover all the lecture and reading material covered up to that point. The test will be worth 25% of the final course grade.
Essay and Presentation. An APA-formatted essay of 2500 words (not counting references) will be required. A class presentation for each student, directly related to their essay topic, will be scheduled during the last part of the semester. More details on the content and structure of the essay (including late penalties) and information regarding the structure of the presentation (length of time, etc.), will be provided early in the semester and posted in an instruction document on OWL. The essay and presentation combined will account for a total of 35% of the final course grade (30% essay plus 5% presentation).
Participation. It is expected that students will become actively involved in discussions and will prepare for class by doing the assigned readings and reflecting on them. Active participation is also expected in the lab sessions. A total of 10% of the final course grade will be accounted for by participation (5% from class participation plus 5% from lab participation).
Lab Component. The lab component of the course will take place on Thursdays. The lab component will be worth 30% of the final course grade (in addition to the 5% for laboratory participation as mentioned above). Further details on the breakdown of the lab component grade will be provided during the first lab and posted on OWL in a separate lab outline document.
PLEASE NOTE: Because this is an essay course, as per Senate Regulations, you must pass the essay component to pass the course. That is, the average mark for your written assignments must be at least 50%.
This course is exempt from the Senate requirement that students receive assessment of their work accounting for at least 15% of their final grade at least three full days before the date of the deadline for withdrawal from a course without academic penalty.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
Test. The test will be held on Tuesday October 29th during regular class time.
Essay and Presentation. Essays will be due on Tuesday November 26th at the beginning of class at 9:30am. Essays must be submitted both in paper copy in class and in electronic copy via the “assignments” section of OWL to be checked by turnitin.com [see Section 8.0 of this outline]). Essay presentations will be scheduled during lecture classes on November 12th, 19th, 26th, or December 3rd on the basis of student topic selection.
Participation. Assessment of participation will be on-going throughout the term in both the lecture and lab during all regularly scheduled classes.
Lab Component. Lab project assignments and activities will be evaluated throughout the term. Specific due dates will be available in a separate lab outline document that will be provided at the first lab class.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Sept. 10th – Overview and Introduction
Sept. 17th – Essential Measurement Issues in Personality Assessment: Reliability Murphy, K. R., & Davidshofer, C. O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications
(6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Chapters 6 and 7, pp. 116-152.
*Note: Do not bother to read the sections on “Reliability of Difference Scores,” “Reliability of Composite Scores,” and “Reliability of Criterion-Referenced Tests.”
Sept. 24th – Essential Measurement Issues in Personality Assessment: Validity Murphy, K. R., & Davidshofer, C. O. (2005). Psychological testing: Principles and applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Chapters 8 and 9, pp. 153-201.
*Note: Do not bother to read the section on “Tests and Decisions” or the material on pages 192-198.
Oct. 1st – Personality Assessment and Pre-employment Testing: Basic Issues Hughes, D. J., & Batey, M. (2017). Using personality questionnaires for selection. In Goldstein, H. W., Pulakos, E. E., Passmore, J. & Semedo, C. (Eds.) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of recruitment, selection and employee retention. Malden, MA: Wiley. pp. 151-181.
Raymark, P. H., Schmit, M. J., & Guion, R. M. (1997). Identifying potentially useful personality constructs for employee selection. Personnel Psychology, 50, 723-736.
Tett, R. P., Jackson, D. N., & Rothstein, M., (1991). Personality measures as predictors of job performance: A meta-analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 44, 703-742.
Oct. 8th & Oct. 15th – Personality Assessment and Pre-employment Testing: Faking of Personality Test Responses
Blasberg, S. A., Rogers, K. H., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). The Bidimensional Impression Management Index (BIMI): Measuring agentic and communal forms of impression management. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96, 523-531.
Christiansen, N. D., Goffin, R. D., Johnston, N. G., & Rothstein, M. G. (1994). Correcting the16PF for faking: Effects on criterion-related validity and individual hiring decisions. Personnel Psychology, 47, 847-860.
Dwight, S. A., & Donovan, J. J. (2003). Do warnings not to fake reduce faking? Human Performance, 16, 1-23.
Fan, J., Gao, D., Carroll, S. A., Lopez, F. J., Tian, T. S., & Meng, H. (2012). Testing the efficacy of a new procedure for reducing faking on personality tests within selection contexts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(4), 866–80.
Goffin. R. D., & Boyd, A. C. (2009). Faking and personality assessment in personnel selection: Advancing models of faking. Canadian Psychology, 50, 151-160.
Goffin, R. D., Jang, I., & Skinner, E. (2011). Forced-choice and conventional personality assessment: Each may have unique value in pre-employment testing. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 840-844.
Jackson, D. N., Wroblewski, V. R., & Ashton, M. C. (2000). The impact of faking on employment tests: Does forced choice offer a solution? Human Performance, 13, 371-388.
Jeong, Y. R., Christiansen, N. D., Robie, C., Kung, M.-C., & Kinney, T. B. (2017). Comparing applicants and incumbents: Effects of response distortion on mean scores and validity of personality measures. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 25(3), 311–315.
Rosse, J. G., Stecher, M. D., Miller, J. L., & Levin, R. A. (1998). The impact of response distortion on preemployment personality testing and hiring decisions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 634-644.
Oct. 22nd – Current Issues in Personality Assessment
Oct. 29th – Test
Nov. 5th – Fall Reading Week
Nov. 12th, Nov 19th, Nov. 26th, & Dec. 3rd – Student Essay Presentations
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;
- are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;
must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2019-2020 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.
