ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the trends and events that occurred during the past half-century and discusses the status of personality assessment, and speculate on what the future might hold in store. Psychodiagnosis and personality assessment were central components of this training. In the 1950s, the use of projective techniques in personality assessment was a growth industry. Under certain specifiable circumstances, projective techniques and other personality tests might be exempt from some of the traditional requirements for reliability, but inter-examiner differences were less excusable. In clinical psychology, personality assessment had definitely been perceived as being part of the “Establishment.” Traditional personality assessment seemed anachronistic and was consequently de-emphasized in many training programs. In addition to new assessment devices and conceptual advances, there has been immense progress in the development of the mathematical and statistical infrastructure for the construction and evaluation of personality assessment devices.
