Checklists and Rating Scales – Methods Of Measuring Personality

Checklist and rating scale are two assessment tools that can be used to assess individual personality. Checklist provides a sheet with various personality descriptions where the client marks the phrase that describes them best. Rating scale on the other hard gives an individual a chance to rate their personality based on described aspect. Each aspect is given a scale from the list to the highest in five levels where the client is required to rate him or herself on that scale. The rating scale can as well be used to rate another person; the professional can use it to rate a client. The two forms of assessment are very reliable since they have been professionally developed to assess personality. They are also valid in measuring personality. However, rating scale can be used to overrate a person and when this is done the level of consistency may go down (Aiken, 1996).

The main strength of the two is that they are easy to administer and analyze the data. In addition, there are various methods of scale rating and checklists that can be used to asses personality. In most cases, psychologists are able to employ the methods that can best address the customers need for assessment. The main weakness of scale rating is that it can easily initiate biasness in personal assessment. The method does not present ethical issues, unless in a situation where rating is done by another person. The two methods can be used together, however, to avoid biasness, checklist would be more preferred. The two tools are used when specific aspects of personality need to be known (Reynolds& Livingston, 2013).

Scroll to Top