The role of personality measures in neuropsychological evaluations

The role of personality assessment when conducted within clinical neuropsychological evaluations is to rule out emotional or psychiatric reasons for poor test performance (Boyle et al., 2012a; Burns et al., 1994; Golden and Golden, 2003a, b). Personality measures have been administered in conjunction with traditional batteries of tests such as the Halstead–Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HRNB), Luria–Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) and Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB; Robbins et al., 2012). The utility of personality assessment has been well established (Boyle et al., 2008b, 2012b, 2015; Boyle and Barton, 2012; Cattell, 1973b; Millon, 2008), including in neuropsychological evaluations (Rabin, 2016; Russell, 2012b; Russell and Russell, 2009).Assessing personality status within the framework of neuropsychological evaluations also enables an understanding of the ramifications of a brain impairment on patients’ affect (Cattran et al., 2018; Gass, 2000; Rabinowitz and Arnett, 2018; Ready et al., 2001). Clearly, personality attributes are directly affected by brain function. Personality measures have been administered widely for clinical diagnostic and treatment purposes, but only minimally to ascertain which brain systems or functions are causally linked to putative personality traitconstructs (see Boyle et al., 2008a,b; DeYoung et al., 2005; Karson et al., 1997; Millon, 2008). Even so, many patients, by virtue of their brain injuries, are unable to complete self-report personality questionnaires1 due to limited self-awareness (Garb, 2003).Smith et al. (2010) surveyed the personality assessment practices of North American neuropsychologists and found that mood and affect measures, such as the Beck Scales, were the most widely administered, followed by the Behaviour Rating Scales, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second edition (MMPI-2) and the Personality Assessment Instrument (PAI), respectively. Likewise, Rabin et al. (2016) conducted a similar survey showing that the MMPI-2 (and the Restructured Format version, MMPI-2-RF) was the most frequently administered personality instrument in neuropsychological evaluations. In this chapter, we discuss the utility of some major personality questionnaires – Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), Clinical Analysis Questionnnaire (CAQ), PsychEval Personality Questionnaire (PEPQ), PAI, and MMPI-2, MMPI-2-RF and MMPI-3) within the context of clinical neuropsychological evaluations.