The peer Scholar process is divided into three phases:

• Create
• Assess (Peer review)
• Revise/reflect

The first of these phases, Create, is due on February 2. This term, you will be asked to constructively critique an online personality inventory like the ones that we will have taken in class.

The Internet is full of personality tests. You may have seen some on your favourite social media platform. These tests can be very general (“What is my personality type?”) or very specific (“What Harry Potter character am I?”) and vary widely in their validity and their reliability. In class, we have discussed what makes a valid and reliable personality test. What kinds of questions should be asked? How many questions? How do we prevent people from lying on the test? We have also talked about personality theories. Which theory or theories inform these tests? Which theory or theories do their results support?

For this assignment, in approximately 600-800 words, you should critique an online personality test. In your assignment, you should first very briefly summarize the test and its aims (2-3 sentences maximum). You should then form a main argument about your expectations for the test’s reliability (how consistent do you expect its results to be if the same person takes it multiple times? Why?) and its validity (how well does it measure what it purports to measure? How might it compare to other measurements of the same construct? Why? How valid might the test be if conducted in a culture other than the one in which it was created?). You should support this claim by drawing on examples from the test itself, endorsing certain aspects and criticizing others, including the result of the test. You should, in your argument, rely on some theories of personality from the course. What theory, if any, informs the test you chose? What theory informs your own analysis of the test? You will want to rely on the course lectures, your notes, your textbook, and at least one external source. For the latter, you might consider citing another well-known personality inventory, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or a study examining the effectiveness of an existing personality inventory.

 You may, but are not required, to use this online personality test for your assignment. You are encouraged to get creative and find a different test!

http://similarminds.com/bigfive.html

You may, but are not required, to read and cite this seminal paper (cited in your textbook), which critiques one aspect of personality inventories’ test results. You are encouraged to go above and beyond and find alternate/additional sources to use.

Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44, 118-123.

For all claims that you make, you should support them with citations. You may use your textbook, but an even better way to cite from your textbook is to use the scholarly books and articles that your textbook cites or to go directly to the sources themselves by searching scholarly databases (PsycINFO, among others). You are expected to use at least one scholarly citation that is not your textbook or lecture slides, and you should cite it using APA in-text citations and a reference list. You should also cite your personality inventory using APA format. Non-scholarly sources are not acceptable for this assignment.

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