Personality Assessment is an industry worth billions. Unfortunately, however, many personality tests are unreliable and even misleading.
MBTI simplifies personality into four either/or binaries that follow Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types: extraversion vs introversion; sensing vs intuition; thinking or feeling.
Other assessments use projective techniques, like Rorschach test ambiguous inkblots or Thematic Apperception Test results that require professional training to interpret and score.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The MBTI utilizes either/or questions to categorize individuals into one of 16 personality types. More specifically, the assessment measures four dimensions with two categories each for introversion and extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving and so on.
Assessments provide people with an opportunity to gain more insight into themselves and possible career options, while giving a glimpse of how people may interact with one another. They have become popular worldwide among various organizations and psychological studies have focused on it extensively.
However, it should be remembered that the MBTI can be misleading as it doesn’t provide numerical scores for its dimensions; rather it categorizes people at one end of each spectrum for each dimension instead. Because of this lack of objective scoring system and external influences such as stress or mood changing interpretation of results. Yet still useful for personality assessment with its pinpoint ability in highlighting strengths and weaknesses as well as being used for career counseling and life coaching purposes.
DISC
DISC is one of the most acclaimed personality assessments. Organizations use this test to assess personality traits, improve teamwork, assist recruitment efforts and increase communication. The DISC test measures an individual’s natural behavioral style as well as their adjusted (conscious) personality profile.
William Moulton Marston, a physiological psychologist who earned his doctorate from Harvard University, developed the DISC theory in 1928 to examine four intrinsic drives that shape human behavior and personalities. He assigned each drive a descriptive name such as D, I, S or C for easy reference and created a questionnaire asking candidates which descriptors they most relate to.
Candidate are able to quickly and accurately determine their DISC style by selecting those descriptors which most closely fit them, creating an individual report which details both strengths and weaknesses of a person’s personality. While there are various assessments, it’s essential that they provide valid results.
Enneagram
The Enneagram is an influential personality assessment that offers us insight into our core driving motivations, interactions with others and how to build stronger relationships at work. It can also be used for screening potential job candidates. Based on Oscar Ichazo’s nine personality types described as character types for assessment purposes. The test has become a widely accepted model of human behavior.
According to the official Enneagram website, each person is defined by one dominant type and may exhibit traits of an adjacent personality type known as their “wing,” for instance if someone is classified as Nine but also has traits from Two or Eight it’s possible they take on some characteristics from them as wings; each personality type offers their own strengths that should be recognized for success both professionally and personally – for instance a person with a Nine wing may prioritize harmony while channeling energy towards others.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
The MMPI is one of the most widely administered psychological tests in the US. Consisting of true/false questions scored according to their accuracy, this test can help identify mental health symptoms, personality traits and special issues that require further investigation.
MMPI testing can be utilized in various settings, from criminal justice investigations to personnel applications. Therefore, it’s vitally important that users of the test understand its workings and the various findings when interpreting its results.
There are various MMPI scales that can help identify specific forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression and paranoia. It’s important to keep in mind that the MMPI should only ever be seen as one tool in a mental health professional’s diagnostic toolbox.
The MMPI-2 contains 567 true/false questions that take up to 90 minutes to complete, with its adolescent version (MMPI-2-RF) taking 45-50 minutes and featuring three validity scales including F scale for measuring inconsistencies in responses.
