What are personality tests? They are tests that try to determine, as the word implies, the personality constructs of a particular person. Most of these tests are actually introspective. This means they involve self-report questionnaires, measures, or reports from life records such as rating scales.
Predictably, there have been various difficulties with these sorts of tests because of their introspective nature. This is because they are extremely susceptible to motivational response distortion. This can range all the way from lack of proper self-insight (or biased perceptions) down to intellectual dishonesty, depending, of course, on the reason or motivation for the assessment.
Basically, this means that it is difficult to get accurate personality tests because, since the tests are introspective, they depend wholly on honest answers from the person being tested. It becomes problematic when a person is involved in self-delusion, and, rather than face the realities of his/her personality, gives wrong answers to satisfy his/her own ego.
What are the 4 types of personality tests?
There are many different types of personality tests, but some of the most commonly used include:
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): This test is based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality types and measures how individuals perceive the world and make decisions.
- The Big Five Personality Traits: Also known as the Five Factor Model (FFM), this test measures five broad dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
- The DISC Personality Test: This test measures an individual’s behavior and tendencies in four areas: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.
- The Enneagram Personality Test: This test assigns individuals to one of nine personality types based on their motivations, emotions, and worldview.
Hogan Personality Test
The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is a personality assessment tool designed to measure normal personality traits and characteristics that are related to job performance. It provides insight into an individual’s strengths and potential derailers (traits or behaviors that could negatively impact job performance) in the workplace.
The HPI measures seven dimensions of personality, including Adjustment, Ambition, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Prudence, Inquisitive, Learned Behaviour, and Good Impression. The test is often used in pre-employment screenings, leadership development programs, and coaching and mentoring initiatives.
Hogan HBRI
The Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI) is a cognitive ability assessment tool designed to measure an individual’s ability to think critically and solve problems in a business context. The HBRI measures inductive reasoning, the ability to identify patterns and make generalizations based on limited information, and is used to predict an individual’s potential for success in a variety of roles, including management and leadership positions.
CPI Personality Tests
The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) is a comprehensive and widely used personality assessment tool. It measures a range of normal personality traits and behaviors that are related to work and personal adjustment. The CPI provides insight into an individual’s strengths and potential areas of difficulty in a variety of settings, including the workplace.
The CPI measures 20 personality scales, including dominance, self-control, empathy, and self-esteem. It can be used in a variety of settings, including pre-employment screenings, career counseling, and organizational development.
Why Are Personality Tests Important To Employers
Some employers consider a lot before hiring or recruiting members to their team. After all, a work environment, in other to be truly effective, needs to be cohesive and cordial, and a bunch of different or problematic personalities can throw off the entire synergy of the group. Therefore, here are some of the particular reasons why personality tests are important to employers.
- When hiring, a lot of employers consider the dynamics that a prospective employee might bring to the workforce. Questions like how well they will work with others, if they will be problematic or not, or if they will add toxicity to the work environment and other such questions are important and need to be answered. Of course, an easier way to answer these questions is through a comprehensive personality test.
- Generally speaking, people love to buy from nice, cheerful, and outgoing people. This means that it is unlikely for a moody, introverted, and shy person to be an adequate sales rep or marketing manager. This means that in order to adequately fill a position, it would be smart to let applicants take a personality test. This, of course, helps employers fill positions adequately as they put square pegs in square holes personality-wise. With this, employers expect an increase in work productivity and efficiency.
- Personality tests can tell an employer a lot about a potential employee’s motivations, abilities, and tendencies. This helps to inform decisions regarding hiring and recruitment, as employers would like to able to know how to motivate employees and know what makes them tick.
- Most importantly, perhaps, employers would like to hire people they like and would enjoy working with. There are personality types that are suitable to work with, and some employers would be on the lookout for people with these personality traits.
CONCLUSION
Personality tests are good tools for determining the construction of a person’s personality and although sometimes they might be subject to error, they give more or less accurate results about a person’s personality trait. This, like many other tests, can be of good use to human resources managers as they help to decide methods of mediating conflict in the workplace.
This is because some methods work more with some personalities than with others. These sorts of tests can also be very useful when deciding who to hire for a particular role that involves a dominant personality trait. For example, it would be better for a silent and secretive person to be hired for a position that involves a lot of secrecy than for a blabbermouth to be hired for the same position. And on the flip side, it would be better for an extrovert, rather than a shy person, to be hired for a position that requires networking and creating and maintaining relationships.
Personality Test Questions
| I make friends easily | NO | □□□□□□ | YES |
| People can rarely upset you | NO | □□□□□□ | YES |
| I trust others | NO | □□□□□□ | YES |
| I often feel sad | NO | □□□□□□ | YES |
Free Personality Test Questions And Answers
Statement on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)
- My father always tells me that I had a vivid imagination.
2. I usually have a dramatic mood
3. I enjoy reading a Newspaper
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