How to Understand Personality Assessment
Personalizing the Science of Personality
To understand personality assessment, it is important to begin with a basic understanding of the scientific method. In 1950, Albert Einstein published several essays in his book, Out of My Later Years. In one essay on Science and Religion, he pointed to a definition of science:
“Science is the century-old endeavor to bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough-going an association as possible.”
This definition may not seem obvious brilliant, but the basic elements of the scientific method are all present:
1. Bringing together perceptions;
2. Systematic thought;
3. Making connections.
Together, these elements of science are personalized in any activity found in Clinical Psychology, including Personality Assessment. Psychological testing is essentially the work of rendering the personality perceptible through systematically developed and administered tests to bring into connection a multitude of personal experiences.
Snapshots vs Water Samples
I have heard psychological assessment compared to “snapshots”, or quick, small photographs that represent only a moment in time. If psychological assessment is a “snapshot”, then no matter what the photograph shows, it is only a “snapshot” and could never represent the complexity of a personality.
Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin, PhD., creator of the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior, offered a different understanding of psychological assessment that she called the “Pond Water Theory”. She compared psychological assessment to taking a water sample from a pond, saying that “a few ‘teacups’ of interpersonal patterns can provide a representative sample of the whole interpersonal ‘pond’.”
Fundamentally, the two perspectives are significantly different. Comparing psychological assessment to a “snapshot” oversimplifies the systematic thought Dr. Einstein asserted was fundamental to science. Dr. Benjamin’s understanding compares one application of science (e.g., sampling a body of water) to another (e.g., sampling patterns of behavior).
The Purpose of Personality Assessment
In Science and Religion (1950), Dr. Einstein tried to explain how the scientific method can fail while still being foundational to understanding.
“When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails us. One need only think of the weather, in which case prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us. Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.”
Predicting a person’s future is beyond the capability of science, but the scientific method may still reveal patterns showing that life is not necessarily random. Personality Assessment works to discover the complicated order of each individual's life. Through such assessment, I hope to help people and families toward further happiness.
Benjamin, L.S. (2003). Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders. Guilford Press: New York, p. 274.
Einstein, A. (1950). Science and Religion, In Out of My Later Years. Philosophical Library: New York. pp. 25-28.