PRACTICAL 3
HIGH SCHOOL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE (HSPQ)
AIM: To study the personality of a high school student using High
School Personality Questionnaire.
BASIC CONCEPT: In psychological terms, personality refers to our
characteristic ways of responding to individuals and situations. People
can easily describe the way in which they respond to various situations.
Certain catchwords (e.g. shy, sensitive, quiet, concerned, warm, etc.)
are often used to describe personalities. These words refer to different
components of personality. In this sense personality refers to unique
and relatively stable qualities that characterizes an individual’s
behaviour across different situations over a period of time.
In brief, personality is characterized by the following features:
1. It has both physical and psychological components.
2. Its expression in terms of behaviour is fairly unique in a given
individual.
3. Its main features do not easily change with time.
4. It is dynamic in the sense that some of its features may change due
to internal or external situational demands. Thus, personality is
adaptive to situations.
Raymond Cattell believed that there is a common structure on which
people differ from each other. The structure could be empirically
determined. He tried to identify the primary traits from a huge array of
descriptive adjectives found in language. He applied a statistical
technique, called factor analysis, to discover the common structures.
He found 16 primary or source traits. The source traits are stable and
are considered as the building blocks of personality. Besides these,
there are also a number of surface traits that result out of the
interaction of source traits. Cattell described the source traits in terms
of opposing tendencies.
MATERIAL REQUIRED:
1. HSPQ Manual
2. HSPQ Test Booklet
3. Response Sheet and Result Sheet
4. Tabular supplements with norms
5. Stencil 1 and stencil 2
6. Pencil and Eraser
SUBJECT’S DETAIL:
1. NAME:
2. AGE:
3. GENDER:
4. SCHOOL:
DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST: The HSPQ measures 14 distinct dimensions
or traits of personality based on Cattell’s personality factors. It is a
modified version of 16 PF and is used for high school students. Each of
the fourteen dimensions has a technical name, a common name and an
alphabetic symbol for convenience. Each dimension is defined by two
poles or extremes. The left one is a score at the low end of the stens
and the right hand at the high end. There are 142 items with three
options each.
RELIABILITY: Reliability is the agreement of the test with itself over
time and was found to be ranging between 0.60 and 0.65 for various
factors.
VALIDITY: The validity was also described for various factors ranging
from 0.52-0.72
PROCEDURE: The subject was taken to the laboratory and made
comfortable. Rapport was built with the subject. Instructions regarding
the test were given. There are 142 items with three options each that
the subject must mark on the response sheet. The raw score is
obtained and converted into sten score using the tabular supplement of
norms. These scores are plotted against the respective personality
factors on the result sheet.
PRECAUTIONS TAKEN:
1. A calm environment was maintained.
2. It should be ensured that the subject has understood the instructions
well.
3. No statement must be left out by the respondent.
4. Each question must be given only one response.
SCORING OF THE TEST:
The raw score is obtained by using stencil 1 and 2 on the response
sheet. Both stencils have to be adjusted using the star symbol printed
on the response sheet and the stencil. The answers seen through the
stencil count as either 1 or 2, as indicated by the number adjacent to
the hole. To obtain the score for each factor, add the weights of the
answers visible in the horizontal strip.
The supplement of norms is then used to convert the raw scores into
standard scores.
INTERPRETATION:
