Dissertation Writers: Checklists and rating scales
Checklists and rating scales are two commonly used tools in assessing different aspects of personality. A checklist is simply a list of items that either exist or do not exist and are marked accordingly. An example of a checklist in personality assessment could be basic markers for a disorder. If a practitioner was seeing a client who may have a personality disorder, the practitioner may have a mental or physical checklist of criteria that may be markers for that personality disorder. During one or more sessions, the practitioner could mark which criteria were met and decide whether further diagnostic testing was necessary. Rating scales, on the other hand, do not have a ‘present’ or ‘not present’ response. Instead, a rating scale looks at potential degrees of criteria presence. For this example, looking at a patient who may be bipolar, they have fluctuating degrees of depression and/or mania. A practitioner may choose to ask them about the frequency or degree of certain symptoms, thoughts, or feelings related to their depression and mania. So instead of checking yes for depression on a checklist, the patient may describe mild to severe feelings of depression or be experiencing depression one day a week to seven days a week.Elaborate and discuss these statements in detailed form.
Both checklists and rating scales are easy to use and therefore get used quite often. There are many previously published checklists and rating scales that can be used, but if one didn’t exist it would be pretty straightforward to create one. The strengths of these tools are also the causes of their weakness. Since they are easy to make and use, they are not always given the proper time and research to assure that they are reliable and valid. There can be issues with phrasing that can affect responses. Also, if there is room for interpretation either in the question or response it can affect results. Justify and provide several and relevant examples to the latter.
Just like interviews and observations, rating scales and checklists need to be assessed to decide what tool for data gathering is going to give the best quality results as far as valid, reliable, and repeatable results go. There is not always a clear-cut answer on what tool works best in every situation. Weighing the pros and cons of each tool for an assessment is going to be important when looking at the overall goal of the individual assessment. Personally, I usually prefer rating scales to checklists. The reason being that rating scales usually offer some form of depth to a participant’s response. Instead of simply saying, “Yes, I experience manic episodes,” or “No, I do not experience manic episodes,” rating scales can offer more information about the manic episodes if they are experienced. Essentially it can kill two birds with one stone. Elaborate and discuss these statements in detailed form.
