2. Enthusiastic, positive, cheerful view of life
Confident
Commands respect and recognition
Warm and cheerful glow
Proud
Super-achiever
Inspiration to others
Go out of your way to give helpful hints
Offer genuine friendship
Tremendous sense of loyalty in your relationships
PROFILE
5. “…personality descriptions from tests are made to fit the
patient largely or wholly by virtue of their triviality; and in
which any nontrivial, but perhaps erroneous, inferences are
hidden in a context of assertions or denials which carry high
confidence simply because of the population base rates,
regardless of the test's validity.” (Meehl, 1956)
THE BARNUM EFFECT
6. University of Missouri: 1992
224 subjects selected from 2,428 screenings
Personality assessment
Evaluation of “specific” personality profile
RESEARCH
9. “…lack of a reliable
interaction between Family
History and Profile
Type, indicating that the
difference between ACOA
profiles and Barnum profiles
was not different for ACOAs
and non-ACOAs.”
“…the majority of subjects
rated the profiles as highly
descriptive of Self.”
RESULTS
10. Although this list of “symptoms” may describe adult children
of alcoholics, it does not define them as a group.
The personality profiles of adult children of alcoholics seem
accurate to them because they are accurate to a large number
of people in the population, some of whom happen to be adult
children of alcoholics.
WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
Editor's Notes
This is a personality profile generated about the “typical college student”
This is actually a personality profile for the zodiac sign Leo
personality descriptions from tests are made to fit the patient largely or wholly by virtue of their triviality; and in which any nontrivial, but perhaps erroneous, inferences are hidden in a context of assertions or denials which carry high confidence simply because of the population base rates, regardless of the test's validity
Basically: the base rate of people in the population is so high that although the symptom profile may describe the group, it does not define them
Study at the University of Missouri (Logue, Sher, & Frensch 1992)56 women ACOA, 56 men ACOA, 56 non ACOA women, 56 non ACOA menGiven a personality assessment. Then they were asked to evaluate a personality profile that, they were told, the computer had generated on the basis of their answers to the initial set of question- naires. In reality, ACOAs and non-ACOAs were randomly assigned to receive one of the four personality profiles shown Rate the profile 1-7 on how well it described 1. self, 2. people in general, 3. ACOA, 1 being very poorly and 7 being excellently
So they took these profiles and evaluated them based on how accurate they were “how well does the profile describe you”“how well does the profile describe people in general”“how well does the profile describe children of alcoholics”
71% rated profile types as describing them “very well” or better (74 non 67 ACOA)43% rated it as describing people in general “very well” or better33% rated it as descrribing children of alcoholics “very well” or betterNo significant difference between ratings for Barnum profiles and ACOA profiles, they are indistinguishable as descriptors of self, people in general, and children of alcoholics