Fortolkning av responser på personlighetsinventorier

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This paper deals with the interpretation of responses to personality inventories. Two perspectives are presented and discussed: (1) a constructive—realist and reductionist, and (2) a nominalist and nonreductive perspective. From perspective 1 responses to personality inventories are thought to reflect underlying psychobiological structures, leading to an emphasis on internal validity as the key to a good understanding of the responses. This position is criticized. From perspective 2 such responses should be considered as any other social action; as self—presentations, whose meaning requires further corroboration. This view leads to a stronger focus on external validity; what do these responses correlate with, in order to assess their meaning. Obviously, these two perspectives have unequal implications for consumers as well as producers of personality inventories.