personality tests

Personality Tests

Recruitment & Selection

What is Personality?

Which of the following helps define the term personality?

A)characteristics that are typical for a person

B) characteristics that make a person unique

C) acting, thinking, and feeling D) all of the above

What is Personality?

Personality is a collection of emotional, thought and behavioral patterns unique to a person that is consistent over time

Originates from the Latin persona, which means "mask.“

Personality Theories

Several theoretical perspectives on personality Trait theories

• A friendly person is likely to act friendly in any situation because of the traits in his personality

4 or 5 broad dimensions are covered

Popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Extroversion vs. Introversion (outgoing and physical-stimulation-oriented vs. quiet and physical-stimulation-averse).

Intuition vs. Sensing (trust in conceptual/abstract models of reality versus concrete sensory-oriented facts)

Thinking vs. Feeling (thinking as the prime-mover in decision-making vs. feelings as the prime-mover in decision-making)

Perceiving vs. Judging (desire to perceive events vs. desire to have things done so judgments can be made)


Every individual has a primary mode of operation within four categories

Our flow of energy How we take in information How we prefer to make decisions The basic day-to-day lifestyle that we prefer


Our Flow of Energy defines how we receive the essential part of our stimulation. Do we receive it from within ourselves (Introverted) or from external sources (Extraverted)? Is our dominant function focused externally or internally?

How we Take in Information deals with our preferred method of taking in and absorbing information. Do we trust our five senses (Sensing) to take in information, or do we rely on our instincts (iNtuitive)?

Popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator How we prefer to Make Decisions, refers to

whether we are prone to decide things based on logic and objective consideration (Thinking), or based on our personal, subjective value systems (Feeling).

How we deal with the external world on a Day-to-day Basis. Are we organized and purposeful, and more comfortable with scheduled, structured environments (Judging), or are we flexible and diverse, and more comfortable with open, casual environments (Perceiving)


16 personality types ESTJ ISFJ ESFJ ISTP

ESTP ESFP ISFP ENTJ

INTJ ENTP INTP ENFJ

INFJ ENFP INFP ISTJ

INFJ vs INFP - Similarity

Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging/Percieving

Primary mode of living is focused internally Operate within themselves on an intuitive basis

which is entirely spontaneous Put a tremendous amount of faith into their

instincts and intuitions Get "feelings" about things and intuitively

understand them

INFJ – The difference

Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging INFJ - sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it

very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may

drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger.

They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right

INFP – The difference

Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Percieving Do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it In conflict situations, INFPs place little importance on who

is right and who is wrong They focus on the way that the conflict makes them feel,

and indeed don't really care whether or not they're right. They don't want to feel badly.

INFPs make very good mediators, and are typically good at solving other people's conflicts, because they intuitively understand people's perspectives and feelings, and genuinely want to help them

Popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assignment – Goto www.similarminds.com Click on 16 Type Jung tests, within that click

on Jung tests (short test 53 questions) Then Go to www.personalitypage.com. Click on potraits of personality types (icon of

a man). A list of the16 personality types is mentioned.

Click on your personality type and go through it in detail.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Explains human behaviour in terms of interaction between the various components of personality

Sigmund Freud was the founder of this school : he proposed the conversion of psychic energy into behaviour

He broke the human personality down to three significant components: the ego, superego, and id.

According to Freud, personality is shaped by the interactions of these three components.


In Freud's theory, the ego mediates between the id, the super-ego and the external world

Its task is thus to find a balance between primitive drives, morals and reality

The super-ego is a symbolic internalization of the father figure and cultural regulations

Stands in opposition to the desires of the id super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our

sense of morality and the prohibition of taboos


Id: Reservoir of need-gratification impulses such as the primitive instinctual drives

Drives of the id are said to work according to the pleasure principle

The id, the ego, and the super-ego collaborate to serve the needs of the body and to control the conduct of the person

Behaviorist Theories

Behaviorists explain personality in terms of reactions to external stimuli

Analysis of behavior based on this model: Stimulus - Response - Consequence

The critical question is "under which circumstances or antecedent "stimuli" does the organism engage in a particular behavior or "response," which, in turn, produces a particular "consequence."

Behaviorist Theories

Aristotle : "When two things commonly occur together, the appearance of one will bring the other to mind."

Pavlov’s conditioning

Personality - As we grow and learn, most of us develop the ability to

function well in realms which are not native to our basic personalities.

In the trials and tribulations of life, we develop some areas of ourselves more thoroughly than other areas.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that we cannot box individuals into prescribed formulas for behavior.

However, we can identify our natural preferences, and learn about our natural strengths and weaknesses within that context

Our native Personality Type indicates how we are likely to deal with different situations that life presents, and in which environments we are most comfortable

Practical Application Career Guidance What types of tasks are we

most suited to perform? Where are we naturally most happy?

Managing Employees How can we best understand an employee's natural capabilities, and where they will find the most satisfaction?

Inter-personal Relationships How can we improve our awareness of another individual's Personality Type, and therefore increase our understanding of their reactions to situations, and know how to best communicate with them on a level which they will understand?

Practical Application

Education How can we develop different teaching methods to effectively educate different types of people?

Counselling How we can help individuals understand themselves better, and become better able to deal with their strengths and weaknesses?

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

Designed to assess an individual’s behaviour in conflict situations.

Conflict situations are situations in which concerns of two people appear to be incompatible.

In such situations we can describe a person's behaviour along two basic dimensions• Assertiveness – the extent to which the individual attempts to

satisfy his/her own concerns

• Cooperativeness – the extent to which the individual attempts to satisfy the other person’s concerns

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

Uncooperative Cooperative

Un

asse

rtiv

eA

sser

tive Competing

Avoiding Accommodating

Collaborating

Compromising

How to Interpret Your Results Your “dominant” conflict management style is

predicted by the style with the highest score. The “strength” of your preference (that is,

your willingness to stay or move from one style to the next) is predicted by the difference between the scores of the styles

If the difference is high, resistance is high. If the difference is low, you may move from one style to the other with ease.

Competing – Assertive and Uncooperative An individual pursues their own concerns at the

other person’s expense. This is a power oriented mode, one uses

whatever power seems appropriate to in one’s rank, economic sanctions

Might mean- standing up for your rights or simply trying to win

Places prime importance on personal goals to the exclusion of any concerns for the relationship

Accommodating – Unassertive and Cooperative Opposite of competing You believe that self-sacrifice and placing the

importance of continued relationship above one’s own goals is necessary for solving conflict

It reflects a need for affiliation and acceptance, interest in appeasing others

Since personal objectives are set aside by the user, the cost of this style lends itself to exploitation and can become incredibly burdensome in the long term

Avoiding – Unassertive and Uncooperative The individual does not immediately pursue

their own concerns or those of the other other person.

They do not address the conflict Avoiding might take the form of diplomatically

sidestepping an issue, postponing an issue until a better time, or simply withdrawing from a threatening situation

Collaborating – Assertive and Cooperative Opposite of Avoiding Involves an attempt to work with the other

person to find some solution, which fully satisfies the concerns of both the persons.

It means digging into an issue to identify underlying concerns

Collaborating – Assertive and Cooperative You believe that conflict itself is neither good

nor bad, but usually a symptom of tensions in relationships and should be treated accordingly

Differences may be resolved and serve to strengthen relationships rather than divide

Conflict cannot be ignored and requires problem-solving often of the type that goes beyond the superficial issues

Compromising – Intermediate in both assertiveness and Cooperativeness You believe that differences between people

should be treated in light of the common good and that party’s need to “win a little, lose a little”

This style tries to soften and make more tolerable the effects of losing by limiting the gains

Attempt to serve the “common good” Addresses an issue more directly than avoiding

but doesn’t explore it in as much depth as collaborating

Interpreting your results There are no right answers All five conflict handling modes are useful in

some situations – each represents a set of useful social skills

Two heads are better than one (Collaborating) Kill your enemies with kindness (Accommodating) Split the difference (Compromising) Leave well enough alone (avoiding) Might makes right (competing)

Interpreting your results None of us can be characterized as having a

single rigid style of dealing with conflict Any individual uses some modes better than

others and hence relies on those modes more heavily than others (temperament or practice)

It is important to emphasize that we have the ability to change our dominant style and our response hierarchy

Competing When quick decisive action is vital, e,g

emergencies Enforcing unpopular rules, discipline To protect yourself against people who take

advantage of noncompetitive behavior

Collaborating Takes time and energy Trivial problems don’t require optimal

solutions Not all personal differences need to be

hashed out Trust and openness maybe taken advantage

of

Compromising When goals are moderately important but not

worth the effort of disruption Labor management bargaining To achieve temporary settlements to

complex issues As a backup mode when collaboration or

competition fails

Accommodating When you realize that you are wrong – to

learn from others and show that you are reasonable

When the issue is much more important to the other person than to yourself

When you are outmatched and losing When avoiding disruption are especially

important To allow subordinates to experiment and

learn from their own mistakes


Companies use a variety of tactics in the interview process to not only screen for skill and experience, but also to ensure the candidate is a good fit

Personality test yield exceptional amount of information about an individual’s less tangible attributes

It is costly to replace an employee who has been let go due to a personality conflict


The costs can be measured in lost productivity, recruiting and hiring expenses, and costs associated with training a new employee.

Giving personality tests can help reduce the risk of incorrectly judging a potential employee's character, and may help you better understand your staff's motivations and actions


As an HR manager you may ask the following questions:

What books do you read? What are your strengths? Why did you leave your previous jobs You will get well rehearsed answers to this

Practical Application Companies ask prospective candidates to take

personality tests-30 to 50-minute online test E.g Candidates maybe asked to rate to what

degree they agreed or disagreed with statements such as, "It's maddening when the court lets guilty criminals go free," "You don't worry about making a good impression" and "You could describe yourself as 'tidy'."

Some firms do not bother interviewing applicants unless they score above a certain level.

Certain other companies, however, prefer to put everyone through an interview on the chance that assessments are wrong.