Assessing temperament and character in an interview

[jiminy]

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Hi all - I'm wondering if any of you have come up with favourite ways of getting a feel for a patient's temperament traits and character development while doing an ordinary interview i.e. before completing a full TCI assessment.

I'd like to be able to at least make some hypotheses about temperament and character in writing up my initial assessments, and completing a TCI obviously won't be possible. However, I'm sure some clever questions could help me to make better guesses than just paying attention to what I see in the interview.

Here are the subscales of the TCI:

• Novelty seeking (NS)
  1. Exploratory excitability (NS1)
  2. Impulsiveness (NS2)
  3. Extravagance (NS3)
  4. Disorderliness (NS4)
• Harm avoidance (HA)
  1. Anticipatory worry (HA1)
  2. Fear of uncertainty (HA2)
  3. Shyness (HA3)
  4. Fatigability (HA4)
• Reward dependence (RD)
  1. Sentimentality (RD1)
  2. Openness to warm communication (RD2)
  3. Attachment (RD3)
  4. Dependence (RD4)
• Persistence (PS)
  1. Eagerness of effort (PS1)
  2. Work hardened (PS2)
  3. Ambitious (PS3)
  4. Perfectionist (PS4)
• Self-directedness (SD)
  1. Responsibility (SD1)
  2. Purposeful (SD2)
  3. Resourcefulness (SD3)
  4. Self-acceptance (SD4)
  5. Enlightened second nature (SD5)
• Cooperativeness (C)
  1. Social acceptance (C1)
  2. Empathy (C2)
  3. Helpfulness (C3)
  4. Compassion (C4)
  5. Pure-hearted conscience (C5)
• Self-transcendence (ST)
  1. Self-forgetful (ST1)
  2. Transpersonal identification (ST2)
  3. Spiritual acceptance (ST3)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
J

 

[Anasazi23]

That looks great and interesting, if I had 1-2 patients to see each day.

You'd probably get a better response in the psychology forum.

 

[erg923]

While these are interesting academic questions, there are easier ways to obtain similar information that has direct empirical correlates to treatment outcome, or devising a patient's treatment plan. If you want to use personality asessment for assisting in the development of treatment plans and/or predicting treatment outcome in a clinical settting, I would stick with the MMPI-2. In non-clinical setting, consider the NEO-PI or the 16PF.

 

[jiminy]

Thanks - how long does the MMPI-2 take to administer, though, compared with the TCI? I've never had the opportunity to administer either, given that I never do just have 1-2 patients to see in a day 😉

 

[erg923]

Although you could certainly give the test and have the patient fill it out, unless you have somehow been trained on it, what would you do with the results? You wouldnt know how to interpret it. The MMPI is a complex instrument to interpret. What a scale elevation really means depends greatly on what the other scales in the test are saying. Not too mention using K corection and all the other fun stats stuff one has to be familiar with when doing interpretation. Generally speaking, interpretation would be done by a clinical psychologist. Generally, psychiatrists refer their patients to psychology for any kind of formal psychometric assessment of personality/emotional functioning.

The MMPI-2 is 567 true false questions, and generaly takes appox an hour or so for a patient to complete. Although you should be aware that the word "Personality" in Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) is a bit misleading. It is really looking at levels and severity of psychopathology, not neccesarily dimensional models of personality traits/characteristics. However, using the the family of clinical scales and certain subscales on the MMPI, one can parse out coping styles and whether the pathology (if it exists) is ego dystonic, or if its more characterlogical in nature. Many subscales, especially the content scales, assess traits such as anger, extroversion, fears, yada yada. The psychometric properties (reliability, and validity especially) of the scales vary significantly, hence, why it is so important that the test only be interpreted by a properly trained clinical psychologist. Their is an extensive body of literature that allow us to make predictions about outcome, amenablity to certain therapies, and what therapies may work best based on a persons profile.

 

[jiminy]

That looks great and interesting, if I had 1-2 patients to see each day.

You'd probably get a better response in the psychology forum.

Thanks Anasazi23 - do you have any favourite questions that you ask in order to get a handle on someone's personality style / traits in the course of an ordinary interview? That's really what I'm after 🙂

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Thanks Anasazi23 - do you have any favourite questions that you ask in order to get a handle on someone's personality style / traits in the course of an ordinary interview? That's really what I'm after 🙂

Are your spices in alphabetical order? 😀

(Used this a couple of times when I was getting a whiff of OCPD...both times they looked at me like I was a mind reader!)

 

[jiminy]

I love it! Carlat has some questions like that for 'sniffing out' personality disorders, but I thought there might be some other gems out there...

Here are some of the ones he has (I've cut out a few that I'd never use, and lots of these would need some tweaking to work for me):




Borderline

• Have people often disappointed you in your life? Have you ever done something to hurt yourself at those times, like cutting yourself or overdosing?

Paranoid

• Have you often found that people in your life have not been trustworthy?

Schizoid

• Are you a people person, or are you someone who prefers to be alone?
  Can you name some things that you really enjoy doing? (Takes pleasure in few, if any, activities.)

Schizotypal

• Do you sometimes have ideas that other people don't really understand or find unusual?

Antisocial

• Do you admire a good scam when you see it?
  Have you ever done anything that could have gotten you in trouble with the law?

Histrionic

• Do you like to be the center of attention? (Yes.)
  When you feel an emotion, do you keep it inside or do you express it? (Express it.)

Narcissistic

• Do you often find yourself getting frustrated because other people don't meet your standards? (Yes.)
  What are your ambitions for yourself? (Will be unrealistically high.)

Avoidant

• Do you tend to avoid meeting people or getting close to people? (Yes.)
  Is that because you prefer to be alone or because you've been rejected before and you don't want it to happen again? (The latter.)

Dependent

• Do you consider yourself a completely independent person, or have you tended to lean on others in your life for emotional support and guidance?
• Who has made most major decisions in your life, you or your ________ (spouse, parents, or other, depending on situation)? (Someone other than the patient.)

Obsessive-Compulsive

• Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
  Do you drive yourself so hard with your work that you find you have no time for leisure activities?

 

[billypilgrim37]

Are your spices in alphabetical order?

And "how are your clothes arranged in your closet."

I think the spices are the only thing in my apartment that ISNT in alphabetical order 🙁

 

[PsyDGrrrl]

Thanks - how long does the MMPI-2 take to administer, though, compared with the TCI? I've never had the opportunity to administer either, given that I never do just have 1-2 patients to see in a day 😉

The MMPI-2 is a self-report test so it depends on the patient, but since it has 566 items...well, you get the idea. It could be hours and then their results might not even be valid and interpretable. The MCMI-III, on the other hand, is much quicker with only 175 questions.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

you know, I'm pretty decent at assessing temperament and character of dogs, cats, and monkeys. It's a shame that things like 'rub his belly', 'cover her nose', 'ruffle his head fur', and 'tap her with a chew toy' are not valid methods with people.