Posted by Larry Hoover on October 18, 2004, at 19:38:38
In reply to Re: about this test, posted by cubic_me on October 18, 2004, at 17:51:05
>
> > On the other hand, you might have figured out how to take the test to minimize your score.
>
> lol! I checked back to make sure that I was truthful! Then I changed my gender to male, and it indicated some moderate traits...hmmm...I'm thinking if men say yes or no to some questions it is more indicative of a disorder.
>The tests are standardized. Men and women do answer certain questions differently, so the score needs to be interpreted while considering the gender of the respondent.
I can't say for sure about this particular test (called an instrument, in true geek speak), but typically, what they would do is something like this. They'd get a bunch of people with e.g. narcissistic personality disorder to take an early version of the test, both males and females. They'd tend to answer the questions a certain way. They'd get paranoids to answer it, and so on. Over time, they'd discover that certain questions didn't tell them much (they weren't sensitive, or not specific), while others tended to be answered a certain way by certain personality types (sensitive and specific). They keep those questions, and mix them up a bit so you don't see any pattern to them. Voila, you have a personality test, but a slightly different one for men and women, based on the typical responses they used to validate the test in the first place.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:403942
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20041016/msgs/404532.html