RATING SCALES

IN PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

• Rating scale is used to assess normal personality and the presence or absence of behavioral abnormality in children and adolescents.

• It is any pen and pencil device where by one assess the behavior of that individual based on his or her observation of the child or adolescent over an extended period of time.

BEHAVIOURAL RATING SCALE APPROACHES

• A checklist format in which presence or absence of behavioral characteristics is indicated

Eg: Behavioral problem checklist; Quay and Peterson 1975.Here the score generated represents the number of behaviors of a certain type that the child is felt to manifest.

• Likert response format in which statements is followed by a continuum on which three to seven anchoring points are indicated. The continuum may be based on how well the item describes the child to be rated.Eg:- “very much like him”

“some what like him”“not at all like him”

(Behavioral rating profile- L.L Brown and Hammill,1978)

Advantages

• Rating scales are the techniques of choice for many personality assessment referrals because they are the only technology that can be practically applied.

Why?

Consider the practitioner who is concerned about the behavioral effects on a 6 months old infant of a difficult

forceps delivery…

• The infant cannot read and write…….• No self report scales can be used…..• No interviews can be ruled out…..• He could not speak or draw with a pencil on a

paper, so expressive projectives are ruled out….• Physiological measurement (eg: Heart Beat) could

be taken, but it need a technically trained person…• Direct behavioral observation is an option but

suffers with the same difficulties that occur with electromagnetic recording of physiological or behavioral medical data….

• The technology best suited here is to provide a set of questions to mother or/and father about the behavior of child since delivery in a standardized manner with normative data from other mothers of infants using the same set of questions for comparison purpose.

What makes Rating Scales UNIQUE?

• It’s the low cost assessment method• It is far more effective than self rating devices, as in

young children they may not have the conceptual or cognitive abilities to respond to a self report device.

• The rating scales are less biased compared to self rating device*

• More reliability compared to unstructured interviewing or performance based technique (Martin, Hooper & snow 1986,Merrell, 2007)

• A check list can be supplemented to rating scale , which list a number of behavioral descriptions , which he/she simply ‘checks’ the item. Thus they are ‘additive’ in nature, but rating scales estimate the degree to which the character is present.

• Rating scales can be 2 point or 3 point in nature, giving a numerical value.

• Conners and Werry (1979) defined rating scales as an ‘ algebraic summation, over variable period of time and numbers of social situations, of many discrete observations………’(p 341)

• ‘it allows precise measurement and differentiation of behavioral frequency or intensity ( Merrell 2007)

*NOTE:SELF RATING DEVICEDeveloped by Harrison Gough in 1960 at University of

California. It consists of 300 adjectives, from which the person

himself rates his personality. It contributes to a meaningful picture of the self-

concept of the person.

Features as an objective measurement technique

• Individual differences in responses on a stimuli can be measured.

• Person to Person comparison can be made.• Use norms for comparison purpose.• Responses are shown to be related to stimuli in a

meaningful way .(Criteria of objective measurement technique Martin

1988)

A few recent personality rating scales…

• Devereux Scale of Mental Disorders (DSMD) (NAGLIERI AT AL,1994)

• Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (Kovacs 1992)

• Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) (Reynolds, 2002)

As a Teachers Tool

• Teachers are excellent raters of the behavior of children. Their educational roles demand observation of children of similar age on a daily basis under relatively consistent environment circumstances.

• Further teachers are trained observers and have some ideas about the behaviors that is most seen in children.

• The teachers rating scale may be less biased due to her expertise and educational role.

Thank you..