Individuality or personality is something assessed or tested and illustrated daily. When speaking about oneself or others, frequent reference is made to the different traits of the personality of a person. Personality assessment can be defined as the techniques utilized to precisely and steadily take a measure of people’s personality. Some of the uses of these tests include; assessment of hypotheses, evaluation of therapy effectiveness, detecting personality changes, screening of candidates of a job and diagnosing of mental issues (Cook et al., 2005).
The two forms of personality tests are projective assessments and self-report inventories. The former involves presentation of the examinee with a nebulous scenario with a follow up of questions about their interpretation of the object in discussion. The latter involves having them read a few questions and then give a rating of how well those questions apply in their cases.
Myers-Briggs Personality Testing; understanding individual’s relationship to the world
This article is about bettering one’s understanding of his or her colleagues in the workplace. Identification of individual’s types of personalities and acknowledging these variances among them is essential in helping team affiliates work together in harmony. The Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular personality tests based on Carl Jung’s exertions. This test identifies four main pairs of disparate elements of psychology. It states that each individual has a certain predilection for one of the physiognomies within every pair and this opted for approach is what is used in most instances. These psychological elements include judgment-perception, thought feeling, sensing- intuition and extroversion-introversion (Myers, 1987).
The most fascinating issue with the MBTI is that in the identification of a type of personality, it segregates sixteen variant typologies based on the dominant side of every scale. For instance, an ISTJ individual would be one who prefers introversion, thinking, sensing, and judging. Such people are usually serious, introverts, practical and reliable. They are able to work in precision and carry themselves calmly under high pressure. This idea is interesting because it makes psychological categories comprehensible and of some use in day-to-day life. Its outcomes are an affinity to priceless diversities between human beings.
Though the MBTI is a very popular gauge of personality, there are certain ethical concerns to be put into consideration. One is that it requires uttermost precaution when applying it as a tool for counselling. Reports show that when the interval for assessment and reassessment it too short, up to fifty percent of the test-takers could be placed in the wrong type. The assessment is therefore unreliable when it is a question of test-retest dependency (Myers, 1987).
Hogan Personality Inventory
This article is about another form of temperament test; the HPI (Hogan Personality Inventory). It is based on five factors and created to be used in occupational settings. It is made up of two hundred and six false-true items and takes not more than twenty minutes to finish. The test provides a thorough business-based evaluation of persona that is particularly designed to forecast occupational triumph. It is useful in development and selection. Unique applications are such as personal testing, employability, individual coaching etc. (Hogan & Hogan, 1992).
One of the most enthralling thingamajigs about the Hogan Personality Inventory is that itcontains seven basic scales and six business ones. A few examples of the primary scales are sociability, prudence, adjustment etc. As for the business scales there is clerical potential, stress tolerance, managerial abilities etc. Four reports than can be derived from the HPI are the career builder, the data report, the leadership prediction challenge report, and the management builder.For this reason it helps in selection of talented individuals, evaluation of the general ability of candidate to be employed, individual job fit testing and tactical self-awareness of personality fortes coupled with demerits.
An ethical concern about the HPI is that its scope is really broad whereas the sectors of career performance are impartially narrow and precise. Studies explain that the predictor’s specificity must match the particularity of the construct i.e. the department of job performance that the forecaster is meant to predict.
The Occupational Personality Questionnaire
This article discusses yet another personality test; the OPQ (Occupational Personality Questionnaire) that aims at the competencies,which graduates, experienced employees and managers require. The OPQ was crafted to be a source of information about the features of the behaviour of an individual that affect their functioning and work competency. It has proved quite helpful in more ways than one. One of these is that it aids in the identification of the best applicants to fit a job position. It also helps in the redeployment if talent through the firm. Another use is in the management of transformation of technical experts to an efficient manager of individuals (Forbes, 2006).
An interesting or beguiling aspect of this test is that the OPQ thirty-two r’s deep insight and scope of reports that are relevant to a company. It is the most current and extensive edition of the OPQ. It gives exhaustive information on thirty-two particular traits that provide support to effectiveness when it is a matter of vital job efficiency; crucial for the three groups of individuals aforementioned.
Like every other personality assessment kit, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire has its ethical concerns too. Its forced-choice format is one of the demerits of the OPQ. Generally, such formats have a tendency to distort the inner regularity of instruments. It is also time consuming to complete the test. In addition, the methodology used fails to describe adequately the process of making decisions regarding responses to multisided forced-choice objects.
Negative aspects of personality assessment or profiling
Personality profiling has its disadvantages too. One is that it does not guarantee that an individual carries through in the same degree of efficiency as they did at the time of their hire. Furthermore, while huge sums of money are saved in the shortlisting of employees to those that scored the highest in the assessment, the drawback is that there has to be someone to do the actual scoring. In spite of the tests being computerized, both time and funds are required to design and make a choice of the most suitable program.
The only accuracy found in these tests is the subjective authentication involved. They are based on the assumption that individuality is a consistent feature of mankind’s mind as well as his habitual traits and that it can be relied upon. There have also been several issues raised against the administration of these evaluations particularly in matters that are non-clinical. They were said to bring about an oppressive mob psychological effect among people and a negative occupational, capitalistic ideology.
Summary and conclusion
The pioneer tests were invented in the early 1920s intended to make easy the process of selecting personnel especially to serve in the army. Nowadays, personality evaluations are widely used; from management of customer interactions to career planning. They could be questionnaires or alternative consistent tools that have been fashioned to unhide certain aspects of people’s character or their mental makeup. However, they also have their perks and shortcomings and should therefore be used with caution of the highest degree.
References
Cook, M., & Cripps, B. (2005). Psychological assessment in the workplace: A manager's guide. Chichester, England: Wiley.
Forbes, A. (2006). The predictive validity of the occupational personality questionnaire (OPQ 32I) in assessing competence in the workplace.
Hogan, R., & Hogan, J. (1992). Hogan Personality Inventory manual. Tulsa, OK (P.O. Box 521176, Tulsa 74152: Hogan Assessment Systems.
Myers, I. B. (1987). Introduction to type: A description of the theory and applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
