Topic 8: Appraisal of Personality {by 7/31}

Based on the text reading and lecture recording due this week consider the following two discussion points: (1) How can accurate personality assessment help the therapeutic relationship and treatment? (2) Discuss your concerns about the continued use of projectives impact on clients and the mental health field.

Your original post should be posted by 7/31. Post your two replies no later than 8/2. *Please remember to click the “reply” button when posting a reply. This makes it easier for the reader to follow the blog postings.

18 Comments (+add yours?)

Kiera Mills
Jul 28, 2025 @ 13:47:56

How can accurate personality assessment help the therapeutic relationship and treatment?

A client’s personality can determine how they will respond to treatment and their likelihood of developing certain disorders. In a conversation between two people, personalities may clash and make communication difficult. This would cause a problem in a therapeutic relationship, making it difficult to gather information if the client is combative due to personal differences. By using personality assessments, therapists can determine the right approach to sessions that would be most likely to be well received by the client. Rather than using a one size fits all approach, accurate personality assessment allows therapists to tailor treatment to the individuals.

Discuss your concerns about the continued use of projectives impact on clients and the mental health field.

Projective techniques involve creating a situation to gain a sample of behavior. This can involve drawing, completing statements, organizing items, and more. Projectives are difficult to fake as the behaviors are often subconscious, giving a true example of a persons thought process or performance ability. They also help clients who are unable to express their thoughts with words to show behaviors that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by the clinician. However, many projective tests do not have high validity or reliability, such as the ink block test. Results are also subject to personal interpretation, meaning there is high amounts of bias in the results. Projective techniques can be very useful in exploration for clinicians to see different aspects of the client, but shouldn’t be used as stand-alone measures of behavior.

Reply
- Alexis Culver
  Jul 29, 2025 @ 11:38:13
  
  Hi Kiera,
  
  I agree with your answer to question one that it can help with an individualized approach instead of just using a one size fits all approach. I also like how you said personalities can clash and make communication difficult.
  
  Reply
- Sydney Corfey
  Jul 29, 2025 @ 19:02:23
  
  Hi Kiera,
  
  I like how you mentioned different personalities can clash and that can make it difficult for a client and clinician to make a connection. It’s important to identify similarities and differences between the two and apply those when coming up with a treatment plan along with forming a connection.
  
  Reply
- Madelyn Messier
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 08:16:08
  
  Hi Kiera,
  
  You made some strong points about the value of personality assessments in therapy. I agree that personality plays a big role in how clients engage with treatment, and that clashes between client and therapist can make communication harder. Using assessments to guide the therapeutic approach really does help create a more individualized and effective plan, which can strengthen the therapeutic alliance.
  
  I also appreciate your take on projective techniques. They can be incredibly useful in accessing thoughts and behaviors that clients may not be able to express directly. At the same time, your concern about the lack of validity and potential for biased interpretation is important. Like you said, projectives work best when used alongside more reliable methods rather than on their own.
  
  Great insights!
  
  Reply
Sydney Corfey
Jul 28, 2025 @ 15:55:05
1. A client’s personality can help determine the type of treatment they could benefit from. Everyone has a different perspective on therapy and has different types of treatment. Using a client’s personality can help determine the best treatment plan for them, and help determine the best way to provide support for them. Personalities can connect a client and clinician, while other times it can cause disconnection. A person’s personality can help a clinician determine the best treatment plan for their client and the best way to form a connection.
2. Projective techniques can help client’s express subconscious thoughts and express feelings they may not have noticed that they had. It cannot be used as a method by itself and it should be used as a supplement with other techniques. It can create bias and is not always reliable or valid. Many other techniques fall into the same category where they should be used as supplements to other methods and help identify specific interpretations the client may have along with feelings they didn’t know they had which can lead to the most beneficial treatment plan.
Reply
- Alexis Culver
  Jul 29, 2025 @ 11:41:01
  
  Hi Sydney,
  
  I agree with your response to question two I like how you included the piece about subconscious thoughts and how they may not noticed them. I also said something similar about how this should be used in addition to other methods.
  
  Reply
- Kiera Mills
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 08:02:47
  
  Hi Syd,
  
  I agree that personality is very influential in deciding what treatment plan will be most effective. I liked how you said that each person has different views on therapy, I hadn’t considered that as a part of their personality. I also agree that projective techniques can only be used to gather extra information and cannot be supplements for other assessments.
  
  Reply
- Nick Cedeno
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 11:42:00
  
  Hi Syd,
  
  I like the point you made that it would be beneficial to use these personality assessments as supplements. They can be helpful to provide some insight into how the individual might do with a particular treatment based on the results, but the lack of reliability and validity evidence lowers our confidence in the results. So, instead of guiding the entire treatment off of one personality assessment, it could be a more ethical and productive approach to use it as a supplement.
  
  Reply
Alexis Culver
Jul 29, 2025 @ 11:33:19
1. How can accurate personality assessment help the therapeutic relationship and treatment?
- The personality of a client has a big impact on how they react to treatment and what kinds of interventions may work for them. Since everyone has a different perspective on therapy, knowing their personalities can help clinicians to make a treatment plan that is suitable for them individually. Sometimes it can be hard to gather accurate information because the client and the therapist can have a disconnect with their personalities. Nonetheless, personality assessments can help the therapist in anticipating the difficulties and help them to change their strategy if necessary. Learning the clients personality allows for a more individualized approach.
2. Discuss your concerns about the continued use of projectives impact on clients and the mental health field.
- Projective approaches are beneficial because they help clients to express ideas that may be hard for them to discuss. These approaches like drawing or finishing sentences can give you a lot of insight into the client’s life and could reveal behaviors or feelings that otherwise may not have been discussed. Projective assessments however, are not always reliable and bias could come from how the clinician interprets the results. This means that projective assessments should be used in addition to other approaches. When this approach is combined with other techniques, projectives can help you understand the client’s needs better and create a more effective treatment plan.
Reply
- Sydney Corfey
  Jul 29, 2025 @ 19:04:10
  
  Hi Alexis,
  
  I like how you mentioned everyone having a different perspective on therapy. It’s important to know the client’s thoughts and perspectives on therapy so the clinician can provide the best type of support they need along with a treatment plan. Knowing how the client will react to treatment is important and you mentioned that as well. Good job!
  
  Reply
- Madelyn Messier
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 08:14:24
  
  Hi Alexis,
  
  You brought up some great points about how personality assessments can improve the therapeutic relationship. Understanding a client’s personality really does help create a more personalized treatment plan and can make it easier to navigate challenges that might come up between client and therapist.
  
  I also agree with your thoughts on projective assessments. They can be helpful for uncovering emotions that are hard to express, but they definitely come with concerns about reliability and interpretation. Using them alongside other tools seems like a good way to get a fuller and more accurate understanding of the client.
  
  Nice work.
  
  Reply
Madelyn Messier
Jul 29, 2025 @ 21:35:47

1. How can accurate personality assessment help the therapeutic relationship and treatment?
Accurate personality assessment helps therapists get a clear picture of a person’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions. This deeper understanding allows the therapist to build a stronger connection with the client, because the client feels seen and understood. When a therapist knows how a client tends to respond to stress, relationships, or challenges, they can adjust their approach to better fit the client’s style. This can help the client feel more comfortable and supported in therapy.

Also, personality assessments can guide treatment planning. They can show the therapist what areas to focus on, like improving self-esteem, managing emotions, or building coping skills. This makes therapy more focused and effective. Overall, using accurate assessments helps the therapist work with the client more effectively and improves the chances of positive outcomes.

2. Discuss your concerns about the continued use of projectives’ impact on clients and the mental health field.
Projective tests, like the Rorschach Inkblot Test, are designed to uncover hidden feelings by asking clients to describe vague images. However, one major concern is that these tests are often hard to interpret and lack consistent, reliable results. Different therapists might come to very different conclusions based on the same answers, which can lead to confusion or even misdiagnosis. This can harm the client by leading to the wrong kind of treatment or labeling them in an unfair way.

Another concern is that projective tests can make clients feel uncomfortable or unsure about what is expected of them. They might feel confused or worried that their answers are being judged in a way they don’t understand. In the bigger picture, if mental health professionals continue to rely on tools that aren’t strongly supported by research, it could damage trust in the field. While projective tests may offer some insights in certain cases, they should be used carefully and not as the main method for understanding a client.

Reply
- Kiera Mills
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 08:06:14
  
  Hi Maddie,
  
  I like how you mentioned that self esteem, emotions, and coping methods are all parts of personality that should be taken into account in treatment methods. It was also very interesting that you mentioned how projective techniques can cause problems for some people as they are unsure what is expected of them and how they are supposed to perform the task. I hadn’t considered that before
  
  Reply
- Kiera Mills
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 08:06:20
  
  Hi Maddie,
  
  I like how you mentioned that self esteem, emotions, and coping methods are all parts of personality that should be taken into account in treatment methods. It was also very interesting that you mentioned how projective techniques can cause problems for some people as they are unsure what is expected of them and how they are supposed to perform the task. I hadn’t considered that before
  
  Reply
- Nick Cedeno
  Jul 30, 2025 @ 11:31:55
  
  Hi Maddie,
  
  I thought that your example of the inkblot test was a good one. This assessment relies so much on the therapists interpretation that it could potentially be biased and difficult to consistently and reliably reproduce the interpretation depending on the client’s answer.
  
  Reply
Nick Cedeno
Jul 30, 2025 @ 11:28:44

The use of an accurate personality assessment can help the therapeutic relationship and treatment by providing insight into potential strengths and barriers of the individual. It allows the therapist to have a clearer understanding on how their personality may impact the course of their treatment. It could provide some context on the individual’s coping skills, how they interact with others, and their emotional patterns. Having a better understanding of the individual may allow the therapist to strengthen the therapeutic alliance as well. If the client feels more understood, they may be more willing to be open and forthcoming in therapy. An accurate personality assessment could also help guide a more individualized treatment plan. The therapist could avoid using approaches that might be less productive and help to form goals that will fit in optimally with the individual.

The issue with many projectives is that they welcome some skepticism because of the lack of reliability or validity evidence. This could lead to a potential misdiagnosis or over pathologizing if the personality assessment misleads the therapist. This is a potential ethical concern because the therapist has a duty to choose the treatment of least resistance at first, and if the assessment provides an inaccurate read, then the therapist might choose a less-than-ideal approach. There is also a concern of the lack of normative data on personality assessments. This has potential to reflect inaccurate results for individuals that were not completely considered when developing the assessment. For example, if a personality assessment was developed to measure the level of social extroversion in a high school, but the developers didn’t consider socioeconomic status in the region, this may look contrasting in another region where socioeconomic status was drastically different.

Reply
Olivia Ago
Jul 31, 2025 @ 10:49:35
1. Accurate personality assessments strengthen the therapeutic relationship between a therapist and a client and treatment planning through careful consideration of the individual’s values, personal beliefs, and traits that may impact how they may respond to therapeutic services. By a clinician having an accurate understanding of an individual’s core beliefs and perceptions of self, not only does this strengthen the rapport and understanding of the client, but also allows the clinician to consider what intervention methods the client may respond to best. In addition, personality assessments give way to certain barriers or facilitators for treatment goals, especially when it comes to traits such as neuroticism and openness. Finally, personality assessments can aid in diagnosing, through understanding of a client’s long-term personality traits and symptoms they are presenting that may be temporary and not truly align with their typical presentation. This would be beneficial in understanding the difference between certain trait-based aspects or state-based symptoms, and further gives insight to possible diagnoses of personality disorders or differentiating between diagnoses of personality disorders or mood disorders.
2. I believe that the continued use of projectives within the mental health field have a more negative impact on treatment for clients than a positive impact. Projective assessments often lack evidence in their affectiveness, with poor reliability and validity, the results of such assessments are less trustworthy to use in treatment planning. Interpretations of projectives shown also heavily rely on subjectivity rather than objectivity, and with this there may be instances in which the clinician’s own interpretation may not be accurate to what the client is actually experiencing. These assessments take away time from treatment while other assessments with more accuracy for the client’s presenting problems could be used, making treatment more efficient.
Reply
Xhesika Halili
Aug 02, 2025 @ 22:58:57
1.How can accurate personality assessment help the therapeutic relationship and treatment?
Accurate personality assessment can help therapeutic relationship and the effectiveness of treatment. A well – conducted personality assessment shows clients that therapist is genuinely understanding them as individuals, and help them to build a good rapport of trust very important for effective therapy. Personality assessment helps the therapist create a treatment plan that fits the client’s unique needs. The assessment can show both the client’s strengths and challenges. This helps set realistic goals and gives a clearer picture of what needs attention, not just the symptoms, but deeper personality traits behind them.

2.Discuss your concerns about continued use of projective impact on clients and mental health field?

The continued use of projective techniques in the mental health field raises several concerns. Although some practitioners view them as valuable for uncovering unconscious aspects of personality one major concern is the lack of standardization. Depend on clinician interpretation, which increases the risk of subjectivity and inconsistency. This may affect the validity of conclusions drawn from the responses, potentially leading to biased assessments. Continuing to rely on tools with limited empirical support may undermine the credibility of the mental health field.
Reply

Dr. Adam M Volungis