Personality Case Assessment
Patient’s Details
Name: Brenda A. Jones
Age: 38 years
Marital status: Divorced
Number of children: one
Educational level: High school
Income level: Middle Income
Relevant Medical History
Amanda, a mother of one daughter, was diagnosed with clinical depression. Amanda first sought treatment for depression following the birth of her daughter, Marya. She recalls that she first felt depressed after realizing her pregnancy with Marya, and the depression worsened after she gave birth to her daughter. Amanda remembers feeling sad during her first trimester, being tired, difficulty sleeping, dwindled energy, lethargy, and frequent periods of crying at night and during the day without an exact cause. Despite her exhaustion, she reports that she could not sleep at night. Amanda recollects that she felt like she had lost control of her life. Amanda’s gynecologist prescribed 20mg of Pixal, which she continued taking for three months. However, Amanda discontinued the medication’s use, as Amanda did not feel it was helping her. Her feeling was that she did not feel the medication’s effect and no impact on her depression. Moreover, Amanda does not like taking prescription. She did not report any other episode of depression in her life.
Amanda has had a brief history with drugs as a teenager. She experimented with cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana but lost interest in them eventually. Other than an occasional beer at an event, she denies any other drug use. Amanda does not have prior psychiatric treatment. Other than heavy menstrual flow lasting up to nine days and the pregnancy when she was on a pill, she lacks any other medical conditions at the time of this treatment. To treat her presenting problem, the psychiatrist prescribed 50mg of Zoloft to treat her depression. According to her family history, Amanda recalls that one of her maternal aunts had bipolar disorder and another with a mental illness. Her mother always looks unhappy, and she feels that she could be suffering from her form of depression.
Presenting Problem
In this case assessment, the client is a 38-year-old African American woman who has presented with symptoms of depression. Amanda reports that she feels sad all the time, tired, experiences difficulty sleeping, dwindled energy and crying at night and during the day without an exact cause. When she sleeps, her sleep is disturbed, and she takes several hours to fall asleep again. She recollects on her family of origin and her unsatisfactory relationship with her birth mother.
Amanda reports that her depression seems to have worsened since she gave birth to her daughter eleven months ago. Her initial statements in the first interview were that she felt all right, but, after a short pause, she described constantly feeling watched all the time by everyone. Nevertheless, Amanda did not disclose any thoughts and ideas of committing suicide at any time. However, she felt like she was running away from her problems but is aware that she cannot do that. Amanda recognizes that her issues are influencing and affecting her daily life activities in several ways. Firstly, her relationship with her husband and her daughter is affected. Secondly, it has affected her relationship with her family, as she cannot attend family events like Thanksgiving and Sunday dinners. Amanda is unable to work out of her home’s confines, resulting in financial problems in her household. She is aware of her reduced self-worth, and she adds that depression has severely affected her life.
Amanda’s medical records do not indicate any significant issues during her birth and the prenatal period. She also does not recall any alarming events like head injuries or trauma during that period, and her developmental milestones are without neurological problems. Amanda grew up in four, comprised of her younger sister, younger brother, her father and mother, Miriam, Dave, Alisson, and Gregory, respectively. She recalls her childhood being chaotic and unstable. Her mother was an alcoholic who argued and fought with her father frequently. When Amanda was only twelve years old, her mother left their home, leaving them with their dad. She often talked to them on the phone but made no effort to make physical contact with them for five years.
Amanda’s husband has recognized her problem. He is willing to help and is in support of her seeking counseling and treatment. She is concerned that her depression will ruin her marriage if it continues for an extended period. Some friends and her husband are her primary support, though she does not disclose everything to them. Her brother recognized that she was always angry when dealing with their mother. Amanda’s main stressors are; lack of financial independence, long hours spent caring for her child, and lack of emotional reciprocity in her mother. Amanda stated that she has two harmful coping mechanisms. The first one is smoking; she can smoke up to ten cigarettes a day, which she indicated that she would like to stop despite being a way of relieving her stress. The second negative coping mechanism is overeating; she also wants to stop stress eating.
One of her positive coping mechanisms is exercising; she feels better mentally and physically after spending forty hours exercising. She also shares her therapy home assignment with some of her girlfriends, some of whom have had depression before. The third positive coping mechanism is seeking therapy and sharing her problems with a stranger. Loss of confidence in herself has left her at the mercy of others. She has depended on other people’s reactions to feeling important, while dissatisfaction has led to her seeking therapy.
Appropriate Instrument in Personality Assessment for Evaluating the Primary Presenting
Problem
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has existed since 1943. It is the most popular personality test (Gerri, 2018). The MBTI is most relevant in this case as it puts Amanda’s case into an employer’s context. The personality assessment is most appropriate since it provides the human resource professional with insights about the candidate they consider hiring. Myer Briggs Assessment has eight elements, facets, and scales. The features are on introversion, extroversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, and perception. The Jungian framework that underpins MBTI not only describes the personality but also explains it. Different scholarly articles recommend the broad application of the instrument in everyday life.
What are the strengths regarding what this instrument can tell us about the client?
According to the Jungian Theory, MBTI, as an instrument to assess the personality of a candidate in a hiring process, reveals the four preferences. The test instrument shows how a candidate energizes, perceives information, makes decisions, and lives their lives (Rosenberg, 2019). The assessment instrument indicates the personality of the candidates from a self-awareness approach. The MBTI test will show what the candidate will require from their employer to excel at their job. The Myer Briggs assessment will help the hiring managers determine the personality that fits the company position well. Myer Briggs assessment will indicate how Amanda will perform with a team based on her score in the extrovert and introvert scales. Understanding Amanda’s personality will inform on how to improve teamwork. The Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP) observes that MBTI has proven its worth in the pre-hiring process and meets all the psychological test requirements.
What are the limitations of what this instrument can tell us about the client?
The MBTI test is limited to assessing the personality of a candidate only. The test cannot effectively predict the job performance of an individual (Mernet, 2015). In his research, Frank L. Schmidt observes that this personality test instrument is more effective when combined with other tests with higher predictive validity, such as the integrity test and cognitive ability tests. People of different personalities can excel at the same job for various reasons other than their character. Another limitation of this instrument is that the state of mind and environment of the candidate when taking the test affects the test results. Therefore, the results may vary over time (Fine, 2013). The third limitation of the MBTI is that it does not comply with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s guidelines that require it to be a free-choice test (Mernet, 2015). The candidates choose from a multi-choice selection of answers. The fourth limitation of this assessment instrument is that candidates are aware of what the hiring manager is looking for and, therefore, fake their responses.
Effects of Dependent Personality Disorder at the Workplace
People presenting with DPD are likely to submit to others’ will not to lose their care and protection. At the workplace, they present themselves as not being able to handle issues independently. Such individuals lack initiative at the workplace and depend on others to tell them which jobs to take; other people, assume responsibility for their workloads.
People presenting with DPD find it difficult to refuse requests from people they depend on at the workplace. They allow themselves to be intimidated and avoid even justifiable anger to avoid alienating others. They, therefore, tend to accomplish other people’s tasks while they struggle with theirs. Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) reduces the affected employee’s productivity levels as they spend time with the company therapist frequently.
Employees presenting with DPD are often anxious, tense, and worry a lot. They are likely to react badly when they perceive criticism. The individuals will be passively over-reliant on others and feel abandoned quickly. Persons displaying this disorder are self-centered. They view everything through the lens of their condition. Despite their valuable skills, they exhibit challenging behavior in situations that do not match their worldview.
Pre-employment Integrity Testing
Organizations use psychological assessment tools such as Integrity Tests to supplement resume review and personal interviews when they are interested in measuring a candidate’s honesty in the hiring process. Employers use integrity tests in the pre-employment screening process for various reasons, such as stemming theft and counterproductive behaviors (Fine, 2013). Lack of an agreeable and universal definition of what dishonesty implies in employment makes it difficult to determine deceit accurately. Integrity tests in pre-employment screening help avoid hiring incompetent employees that can severely affect an organization’s productivity.
Integrity tests, when used alongside cognitive ability tests, add validity to the selection process. The human resource manager employs integrity tests during the pre-screening stage of hiring to attract high caliber employees into their workforce (Fine, 2013). Integrity tests screen-out high-risk candidates are mitigating counterproductive workplace behavior such as theft, bribery, dishonesty, and drug use (Fine, 2013). Uzma Burki, the senior vice president at Amtrak, says that they endeavor to bring in the right fit individuals.
The main distinction between overt integrity tests and covert integrity tests is that; In contrast, overt integrity tests directly measure opinions and admission towards CWBs; covert integrity tests measure personal character traits related to these behaviors (Odle-Dusseau, 2012). Both tests offer significant operational validity in predicting general CWBs.
Fine also recommends that an organization pilots an integrity test based on predetermined success factors. This way, the decision-makers can assess the effectiveness of the test before operationalizing it in their organization.
Overt integrity tests evaluate applicants based on their attitudes towards aspects such as dishonesty, theft, and other CWBs in a work environment. The overt test directly queries the applicants about their past involvement in factors such as dishonesty events (Allison, (2005). Personality-based integrity measures do not contain direct references to dishonesty or other counterproductive behavior (Fine, 2013). However, they provide crucial insights into the psychometrician to yield meaningful results. The personality-based tests try to disguise the actual intent of the questions. According to Bender et al. (2011), overt integrity tests are easy to cheat as applicants can easily guess the questions’ preferable answer. Personality based measures of testing integrity are more suited to predict absenteeism at the workplace.
The main problem addressed by Fine about fairness and adverse effects of integrity tests is false positives and false negatives. This adverse effect leads the hiring team to overlook future offenders and reject honest ones (Fine, 2013). Fine recommends avoiding this loophole; hiring teams should use integrity test scores and background checks, references from the candidates’ work history, and structured interviews.
Integrity tests overlook situational issues that may influence CWBs in an individual. Research indicates that the working environment and other external factors may affect an employee’s potential to engage in counterproductive tendencies. Therefore, the organization should consider the situational issues when setting their expectations from the integrity test scores.
To enhance fairness and minimize the adverse effects of integrity tests, the publishers should implement all security and legal frameworks to protect the test takers. The publishers should ensure the examination are free of overly invasive questions that may disorient the takers affecting their scores. The publishers of these tests should carry out impact analysis to protect the users. The administrators of these tests should implement procedures that effectively maintain the confidentiality of the scores and responses by the takers (Gardner et al., 2015). The scores should only be shared on a need to know basis within the organization. The adverse effects of integrity tests can include screening out of good candidates because of false positives. There is a loophole of cheating associated with integrity tests. The successful candidates may end up being accomplished liars and not necessarily honest.
Strategic Customer Service
The six-dimension personality test can explain the difference between the successes of customer services among countries. Customer service’s effectiveness comes down to how a person in a position of power, like a manager, relates to a customer using their product (Garvey, 2016).
The power distance index can explain the differences in customer services among countries. The dimension describes how people in lower power position expect power to be unequally distributed. The PDI tells how a country is likely to treat their “less powerful” customers relative to their “more powerful” ones. For instance, tourists have complained that a country like China with a higher PDI score is rude to them, while the USA with a lower PDI has excellent customer service.
The masculinity score on the masculinity index of the country will affect the effectiveness of their customer services. Countries with lower masculinity scores, such as Canada, are great at customer services. However, in countries with higher masculinity scores like China (Marlin, 2013). More feminine countries value cooperation and modesty, making them more excellent at customer service.
When professionals talk about cultural diversity, it is essential to consider that it is relative. One of the primary reasons for the difference in customer services is the existence of neutral and emotional cultures. Showing emotions in neutral cultures are considered unprofessional as it distorts the customers’ reasoning. On the other hand, in sensitive countries, hiding emotions is seen as lacking in warmth and trustworthiness. Customers from vibrant cultures will freely share their disappointment and their happiness (Marlin, 2013). Dealing with a customer from either side of the culture requires the service provider to adapt to the customers’ emotional availability to ensure excellent service delivery.
Customers from universalistic cultures will expect the specific rules to apply to everyone despite personal relationships. Elsewhere, in a particularistic culture, customers would expect preferential treatment based on their relationships (Marlin, 2013). Examples of universalistic cultures include the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (Marlin, 2013). The particularistic cultures include China, Indonesia, and South Korea. The difference between a low context and high context culture determines the quality of customer service. In low context cultures, the communication is precise and straight forward while in high context cultures, the messages are implied, leaving freedom for interpretation.
In an individualistic culture such as the United States, the service provider ensures that the service rendered is appealing to a customer. In communitarian culture, the service provider will present the product to show how it benefits the group or makes the customer look. The power distance of a customer affects how an individual behaves in a particular situation. According to Growth-Marnat (2012), customers from high power distance countries will act more authoritatively than customers from low power distance countries. Direct feedback cultures will directly give their criticism and appreciation, while indirect feedback customers will be explicit in their feedback.
Masculinity Index
The masculinity index, designed by Hofstede, describes how masculine characteristics, such as competitiveness and wealth acquisition, are valued in life. This concept engraved in the cultural mindset of the people. In a male society, the roles of men and women rarely overlap. Men are considered superior to women in terms of speed, reliability, and pushing limits (Marlin, 2013). In more feminine countries like Sweden, the roles between men and women often overlap, and modesty is considered a desirable trait in a candidate (Garvey et al., 2016). Countries with low masculinity index like Sweden, candidates with feminine characteristics like being collaborative, are more desirable.
Relationship between Respect, Power, and Personality
Power and respect in a societal setting influence the personality of an individual significantly. Psychometricians have undertaken research to quantify the effect of control and respect on the character of individuals. Power is the ability to influence outcomes and decisions in a society. Often, people in positions of power are respected, and in other cases, feared. Depending on an individual’s personality trait, they are likely to prefer either led or leading others (Garvey, 2016). Submissive people like to be shown and usually respect those in power. On the contrary, people who are not in authority will be respectful to control, but sometimes they might be rebellious.
Conclusion
The application of Hofstede’s personality theory at leadership in the workplace has led to an exponential expansion in technology, global sharing, industrialization, and economic development at the national and international levels (Garvey, 2016). Power and respect in a societal setting influence the personality of an individual significantly. Every person presents with Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions in different ways. In light of the assessment and treatment of personality disorders like MDD, in Amanda’s case, assessment instruments need to more diversity inclusive in terms of the minorities. More effort needs to be placed in the evaluation criteria’ humanization to encourage more people to battle depression to come forth. Early diagnosis of depression will be critical in reducing suicide rates, divorces, and increase productivity both in the workplace and at home. However, there is a need to put more effort into transcultural elements than intercultural aspects and their influence.
References
Allison, B. A. M. (2005). Case study of a client diagnosed with major depressive disorder. (Publication number 958) [Master Dissertation, Rowan University].
Bender, D.S., Morey L.C., & Skodol A.E. (2011). Toward a model for assessing the level of personality functioning in DSM–5, Part I: A review of theory and methods. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93(4), 332–346. DOI: 10.1080/00223891.2011.583808
Fine, S. (2013). Practical guidelines for implementing pre-employment integrity tests. Public Personnel Management, 42(2), 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026013487049
Gardner, B. O., Boccaccini, M. T., Bitting, B. S., & Edens, J. F. (2015). Personality assessment inventory scores as predictors of misconduct, recidivism, and violence: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Assessment, 27(2), 534. DOI: 10.1037/pas0000065
Garvey, M. J., Momsen, B., & Steinberg, H. (2016). Strategic customer service, cultural differences, & the big 5 in Canada, China, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings of the Academy of Strategic Management (ASM), 15(2), 32–36.
Growth-Marnat, G. (2012). Handbook of psychological assessment. John Wiley & Sons.
Marlin, E. (2013). Genograms: The new tool for exploring the personality, career, and love patterns you inherit. Contemporary Books.