An extract from our ebook- Psychological Profiling
WHEN AND WHY DO WE CARRY OUT PROFILING?
Assessments of various types may be conducted throughout a person’s life, but an individual profile is usually carried out when there is a specific need. For example, intelligence tests may be given to children at certain stages in their school career. An aptitude test may be given to someone when they are applying for a new job. A forensic profile analysis may be carried out when a person is charged with certain crimes, and so on.
Why do we carry out profiles? We have already discussed a range of reasons why we create profiles. Basically, they provide a ready source of information to help us understand and predict behaviour. There are many different tests which are used to assess many different dimensions. But why test at all?
If a person demonstrates a certain personality trait then it is possible to help them. For example, research has found that people with Type A behaviour are at more risk of heart disease. So if a person is recognised as having Type A behaviour, they can possibly be helped to change some areas of their behaviour to reduce their risk of heart disease.
People will often say they are depressed, when they mean really that they are just a bit “fed up” or disgruntled. It is therefore important to be able to recognise when a person is suffering from a mental health condition that requires treatment. There is a world of difference between being fed up and being clinically depressed. In conjunction with other data, psychological tests can be used to help determine if a person is clinically depressed, and possibly the form of depression they are suffering from. This information may subsequently be used to provide an indication of how they can best be helped.
Also, the more we learn from individuals, the more we know about certain groups overall. If we study one person who we think has depression, this would be a guess. But if we study 1000 people who show similar characteristics, then we are safer to assume people with depression will show some of the same characteristics. Therefore, the information from many individual case studies may be extrapolated to a wider population.
Psychological test results provide information about an individual's score in relation to normative groups. A normative group is a reference group against which a psychologist may compare a person’s test results and scores. For example, people may experience debilitating phobias, such as agoraphobia. This is a fear of new situations being unpleasant or embarrassing and being unable to get away from them easily, which can lead to extremes, such as the person being unable to leave their homes. So, if a person goes to see a psychologist, the psychologist may carry out a psychologist test or series of test to help determine their level of agoraphobia. An extreme score might be 100 and a low score below 20, for example. If the psychologist finds that the person has a score of 91, they will realise that they will probably need psychological help and treatment to overcome their condition. Therefore, it helps to determine the severity of the disorder and the treatment required. The person can then be measured again following a period of treatment to determine if their agoraphobia has lessened.
Everyone is obviously different, but classifications of this kind can be helpful. If we know that people with depression have similar symptoms, then we can devise better psychological and pharmaceutical treatments to help them. If we learn that people with Type A behaviour demonstrate certain behaviours, we can help them with ways to change their behaviour to reduce their risk of heart disease. If we see that children display certain gaps in their knowledge in their intelligence tests, it may make the educators realise that there is a gap in the curriculum leading to a gap in children’s knowledge of a topic. So, carrying psychological profiles can not only be useful for the person, but also to determine how we should respond to specific conditions.
HOW PROFILING IS DONE
We shall look at how to profile someone in detail in the next chapter but basically profiling involves gathering information from various sources and then trying to make sense of it.
Information about a particular individual may be collected from a range of sources, such as:
Interviews – there may be one or more interview. It will depend on what the interview is about, how severe the condition is, how hard it is to diagnose, and so on. For example, an intelligence test on an eight year old would probably be carried out in one session, but interviews to determine if a person has a potential antisocial personality disorder may take place over a number of sessions.
Observations – the psychologists would scrutinise a person’s body language, their affect (this is the psychological term for emotionality or feeling) which may be appropriate or inappropriate, tone of voice, loudness of voice, use of expletives, facial expressions, eye contact, personal hygiene, dress, etc. This is an ongoing process throughout the assessment.
Personal history – this includes asking questions about things such as; medical records,
mental health records, education, employment etc.
Psychological testing – this would include administration of psychological tests. It can also include a comparison of tests. For example, if a person has been tested in the past, the psychologist may compare their previous and most recent test results to determine if there are any significant changes. For example, a person may move from showing a slight depression to clinical depression. A memory test might reveal that their short-term memory had declined significantly since they were first tested.
Behavioural assessments - these include techniques to see how a person behaves in particular situations. For instance, in structured observations a child may be prompted to make certain things out of blocks or other pieces of equipment and they might be asked specific questions. The test findings may then be used to assess the child's level of development for certain parameters like cognition, motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination, and so on. Other forms of behavioural assessment might be less specific, for example naturalistic observations of how a mother interacts with her child from behind a two-way mirror or at a kindergarten.
Other sources of information that may be used include:
- Demographic data, such as census material.
- Information from previous research.
- Relevant information obtained using internet searches.
- Social networking sites, forums, chat rooms – this may sound odd, but recent research into paedophilia has looked at the characteristics of people who are contacting victims via online computer games. There is obviously a lot of concern about children being contacted by adults, and potentially coming to harm through making contact with them, on the internet. Research into the characteristics demonstrated by people who commit crimes in this way can be very useful in determining how to target them, warn potential victims, and ensure safeguards are in place to prevent this happening. For example, in UK schools, most children receive education on how to stay safe whilst using the internet.
- Interviewing friends and family - these may provide additional information which the respondent was unable or unwilling to recall. They may also provide information from a different perspective.
- Interviewing others - sometimes other people may be able to provide useful information e.g. a child's teacher or former teacher, an employer.
All of these may be carried out to ensure accuracy. This is because respondents may not be entirely honest. Within interviews and questionnaires, individuals may demonstrate social desirability. This is when they give answers to questions that they think are socially desirable, that will make them look “better” in the eyes of the psychologist. For example, if a person is asked how much they drink alcohol, they may say "hardly ever", when in fact they drink heavily every day. They may say they don’t smoke when in fact they do. They may say they can see a puppy in a Rorschach ink blot, when in fact they see someone being stabbed. So we cannot always rely fully on what respondents tell us. Therefore, through observations, interviewing friends and family, and so on, we can gain a clearer picture of what is actually going on with the person.