An actuarial-experimental model of personality assessment.

Summary A proposal has been made for a new, more powerful approach to personality assessment. The model is an integration of the characteristics of the actuarial principles of test construction with the experimental method. The experimental method should prove to be effective in controlling the error variance arising out of the accidental influences on the responses, and the actuarial paradigm should reduce the error stemming from both a possible low construct validity and the subjectivity of the clinician's judgment. The resultant increase in the clinician's power to differentiate between responses indicative of enduring traits and those which are the outcome of accidental influences should thus help in breaking the impasse currently restricting the usefulness of projective techniques.