Personality psychology is a fast growing and exciting theoretical and applied science within psychology. The measurement of personality is itself a key theoretical and practical issue within the field of Personality Psychology, as well as being integral to a number of applied areas of psychology, namely Occupational Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Health Psychology, and Educational Psychology. Many new personality measures appear each year via test publishers and peer reviewed professional journals. Clearly, it is important for students, researchers and practitioners to be aware of the key conceptual, methodological and statistical issues involved in both constructing a new personality measure and the skilled use and evaluation of existing measures. Perhaps surprisingly, no text exists to guide researchers in the development and evaluation of new personality, and related, measuring instruments (e.g., questionnaires).
The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the important theoretical and methodological issues involved in constructing a new personality measure and in evaluating the functioning of existing personality measures. The book will not attempt to provide an exhaustive account of techniques and issues that in themselves could occupy many volumes, but rather the aim is to signpost and explain important issues and processes while providing references to more detailed technical information if required – however, the book in itself will be sufficient to researchers to understand and implement the various methods covered. The book will use examples from published research to highlight important concepts and techniques; in particular, the later chapters of the book will focus on specific issues within applied areas of psychology that use personality measurement, such as Clinical Psychology, and provide examples of how techniques covered in the foundation chapters of the book can be utilised in practical testing situations. Statistical packages to implement these techniques will be described and discussed.
