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Psychology of Communication: personality
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Psychology of Communication: personality
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Psychometrics is the term used for the development and administration of psychological tests. You have probably come across the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research. It is certainly something you should be aware of when conducting your audience research for any practical media or communication work.
Quantitative research seems generally to be preferred by Communication Studies students. There are various reasons for this; one is that, in the time available, it is often difficult to do more than hand out questionnaires with tick-boxes; another is that the questionnaires make it possible to produce lots of numbers and barcharts, which lend the research a spurious air of 'scientific method' (much the same reason, I suspect, that advertising agencies and market researchers use them).
Qualitative research, using such methods as observation and in-depth interviews has the potential to be much more revealing about the audience. The big problem of course is that it is immensely time-consuming. Using quantitative research methods, you are likely to be able to deal with only a very small sample size and, of course, the results are very much dependent on the researcher's personal interpretation (I think they are in quantitative research as well, but at least it's easier to disguise the fact!)
Similarly, personality tests are either subjective or objective
As far as I am aware, there is absolutely no convincing evidence that subjective tests are of any use whatsoever - though they can be very entertaining. However, for the sake of completeness, I suppose I should say that they include things like
word association tests, where the respondent reacts to words with other words; the respondent may also show signs of anxiety and some kind of apparatus is often used to measure emotional state
thematic apperception tests, where the respondent makes up a story around the people they see in a picture - the assumption is that they will project their problems on to the people in the story
Rorschach inkblot tests, where the respondent tells the tester what they 'see' in the inkblots.
Cattell's 16PF (Personality Factors) Test, designed to rate people according to Cattell's list of sixteen personality factors
Eysenck's tests as presented, for example, in his book Test Your Own Personality
The MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - 2) which consists of 567 statements, which subjects either agree or disagree with. These are primarily used for people receiving therapy.
I don't think any of these is a great deal of practical use to us in researching audiences for communication or media projects. In principle, they ought to be, since one might expect personality to be useful in predicting consumer behaviour. However, personality tests developed specifically for that purpose have performed little better than chance. The evidence is very mixed indeed. Where advertising agencies seem to perform well is in persuading the companies that buy their services that their services are worth buying. Advertising agencies will sometimes engage in personality testing of one sort or another and the results are often persuasive. Whether or not the research really produces anything reliable enough to base a campaign on and say where the research has succeeded is open to question.
What does seem to be the most fruitful area of research in that respect is so-called psychographics, which is concerned with measuring attitudes and lifestyles. If you are interested in seeing whether that can be useful in researching your audience, then you should take a look at the section on motivation. You may also find the section on attitudes helpful
However, personality measurement may be useful to you in helping you to investigate your personality and its influence on the development of your practical work. For example, why do you run out of steam at times? Why do you get frustrated by it? Why do you find it difficult to deal with some of the people whose help you need with your practical work? And so on. In that respect, you may find Cattell's or Eysenck's categories helpful - not to mention Freudian defence mechanisms!
Psychoanalytic theories
Humanistic theories
Kelly's personal construct theory
Trait theories
Personality measurement
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