Dr. McDonald wants to assess the extent to which a client is suffering from depression, social withdrawal, and other symptoms of an emotional disorder. Which personality inventory would be most helpful for this purpose?

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Question: Dr. McDonald wants to assess the extent to which a client is suffering from depression, social withdrawal, and other symptoms of an emotional disorder. Which personality inventory would be most helpful for this purpose?

Option a: factor analysis. Factor analysis is a statistical method used to identify underlying factors among measured variables, not a personality inventory. It helps researchers understand data structure, but it does not provide a standardized assessment of an individual's emotional symptoms or personality traits. Therefore, this is not suitable as the instrument described.

Option b: the MMPI. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a widely used, standardized questionnaire designed to assess a range of mental health symptoms and personality structure. It includes scales that measure depression, social withdrawal, anxiety, and other aspects of emotional disorders, making it highly appropriate for evaluating the extent of such symptoms in a client.

Option c: the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The EPI focuses on core dimensions of personality, such as extraversion and neuroticism. While it provides information about general personality traits, it is less focused on diagnosing or quantifying specific emotional disorder symptoms like depression or withdrawal compared with the MMPI.

Option d: the Big Five test. The Big Five assesses five broad personality domains (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism). It offers a broad personality profile but is not specifically designed to screen for clinical symptoms of emotional disorders. It may indicate tendencies but is not as directly diagnostic as the MMPI for depression or withdrawal.

In summary, among the given options, the MMPI is the instrument most specifically designed to evaluate a range of emotional symptoms and psychopathology, including depression and withdrawal, in a clinical context. The other inventories either test different constructs (factor analysis as a method, EPI focusing on basic traits, Big Five focusing on broad domains) or are not as targeted to emotional disorder symptomatology.

PSY 200 (003) Fall 2025 Introduction to Psychology (TR, 1:30pm)

Dr. McDonald wants to assess the extent to which a client is suffering from depression, social withdrawal, and other symptoms of an emotional disorder. Which personality inventory would be most helpful for this purpose?

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