Perfect Personality Profiles Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Other titles in the Perfect series

  Perfect Personality Profiles

  Content

  Introduction

  1 Why do employers measure personality?

  Personality and work performance

  The impact of situations on behaviour

  Job fit

  Organization fit

  What are questionnaires used for?

  2 What is personality?

  Behavioural style

  Traits

  Types

  3 Measuring personality

  Selection interviews

  Psychological measures of personality

  Example question styles

  Other approaches to measuring personality

  4 What questionnaires measure

  Personality

  Competencies

  Emotional intelligence

  Motivation, values and interests

  Work styles

  5 How employers use personality questionnaires

  Example personality profile and report

  Relating personality profiles to jobs

  6 Completing a questionnaire

  Mode of presentation

  Preparation ahead of time

  Completing the questionnaire

  Hints on answering questions

  After completing the questionnaire

  Standards in the use of questionnaires

  Frequently asked questions

  Further reading

  Notes

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  Published by Random House Books 2007

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  Copyright © Helen Baron 2007

  Helen Baron has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Random House Books

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  About the Author

  Helen Baron is a Chartered Psychologist who has spent her career researching and developing psychometric tests. An active member of the British Psychological Society, she was a founder member of its Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and is currently a member of its Standing Committee on Test Standards. She lives in central London.

  Other titles in the Perfect series

  Perfect Answers to Interview Questions, Max Eggert

  Perfect Babies’ Names, Rosalind Fergusson

  Perfect Best Man, George Davidson

  Perfect CV, Max Eggert

  Perfect Interview, Max Eggert

  Perfect Numerical Test Results, Joanna Moutafi and Ian Newcombe

  Perfect Psychometric Test Results, Joanna Moutafi and Ian Newcombe

  Perfect Pub Quiz, David Pickering

  Perfect Punctuation, Stephen Curtis

  Perfect Readings for Weddings, Jonathan Law

  Perfect Wedding Speeches and Toasts, George Davidson

  Perfect

  Personality

  Profiles

  Helen Baron

  Contents

  Introduction

  1 Why do employers measure personality?

  Personality and work performance

  The impact of situations on behaviour

  Job fit

  Organization fit

  What are questionnaires used for?

  2 What is personality?

  Behavioural style

  Traits

  Types

  3 Measuring personality

  Selection interviews

  Psychological measures of personality

  Example question styles

  Other approaches to measuring personality

  4 What questionnaires measure

  Personality

  Competencies

  Emotional intelligence

  Motivation, values and interests

  Work styles

  5 How employers use personality questionnaires

  Example personality profile and report

  Relating personality profiles to jobs

  6 Completing a questionnaire

  Mode of presentation

  Preparation ahead of time

  Completing the questionnaire

  Hints on answering questions

  After completing the questionnaire

  Standards in the use of questionnaires

  Frequently asked questions

  Further reading

  Notes

  Introduction

  You may be looking at this book because you think you, or someone you know, might have to complete a personality questionnaire in the near future, or perhaps you have filled one in recently. The purpose of this book is to help you understand more about personality questionnaires and the profiles they produce. As with much of what psychologists do, there are some myths and misunderstandings about questionnaires. Some people think they have some magic power to unearth deep secrets about them, while others believe they are all nonsense and are no more valid than horoscopes or tarot cards.

  The reality is that psychologists apply scientific methods to thinking about human behaviour. They develop personality questionnaires and profiles as tools to provide descriptions of how individuals behave, and they aim to do this in the most straightforward way that is effective. For the most part there is no magic about the way personality questionnaires work. They ask a series of often very simple questions about how you think, feel and behave and then collate the answers in a standardized way. At their most basic, questionnaires ask you whether you like being with people and then feed back as a result whatever you said.

  If questionnaires are so simple why do employers use them so much? Test publishing is a multi-million pound industry in Britain, and as someone who works in the field of test development I am constantly being contacted by new clients who would like me to help them develo
p another questionnaire. The reason people want psychologists to develop tests and questionnaires for them is that there is a lot of evidence that such measures are more efficient, effective and accurate than most other methods of assessing people. Psychologists have researched the most important factors in understanding people and encapsulated these into questionnaires. This is good for the employers, who can quickly gain a clear and objective picture of an individual. Personality profiles provide accurate, easily comparable information about each applicant for a job.

  Questionnaires also benefit candidates and others being tested. The process of being tested is relatively quick and painless. Some questionnaires take up to an hour to complete, but they usually take much less time. More importantly, they produce objective and accurate information that is not subject to the individual biases of an interviewer. Your results won’t be different if you have ginger hair or speak with an accent.

  In this book I describe what personality is and how it is measured. There is a section on some commonly measured personality traits and characteristics, and this includes some concepts that are related to personality and that you might encounter in questionnaire-based assessments such as competencies and emotional intelligence. You can use this chapter to think about yourself and understand more about your own personality.

  This book does not contain a full questionnaire for you to complete. It is not possible to do this effectively because of the variety of needs and backgrounds that readers may have. A full questionnaire is likely to be misleading for at least some people. There is, however, a section with lots of examples of different types of questions so that you can see what questionnaires are like if you have never completed one before and would like to practise answering questions. There is also a section describing how employers might use your questionnaire results.

  The chapter on preparation is more about how you don’t really need to do much preparation to complete a questionnaire. After all, you are probably quite an expert on the subject of yourself, and what you are being asked to do is describe yourself. However, there are some hints and tips about answering questions and getting the best out of the experience.

  At the end of the book are sections on standards in using questionnaires and answers to some frequently asked questions.

  I hope the book will help you understand more about personality questionnaires and what they do and, if you are anxious about completing one, that it will allay your fears. Undergoing assessment for any reason, whether you are applying for a job or being assessed to help your development, can be unnerving. The best of us can worry that we won’t come up to scratch or will be found wanting.

  Although the book is called Perfect Personality Profiles there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ personalities. It isn’t better to be extrovert than introvert or flexible than structured. These are just different ways of being. Of course, some personalities are better suited than others to some roles: sales people need to be outgoing and friendly rather than shy and retiring; administrators can be introvert, but they do need to be structured in their approach; journalists need to be flexible and confident. A person who is suited to one role might be hopeless in another. Understanding people and matching them to roles is where personality questionnaires and profiles can be so useful.

  1 Why do employers measure personality?

  Personality and work performance

  Employers are looking for people who will work well in a job and have the skills and knowledge necessary to do their work to a high standard. Having the right skills doesn’t always make the best employee, however. It is not only being able to do the job that is important, employers are also concerned about how the person approaches work and how well they fit into the organization. Some people approach work in a structured fashion, whereas others tend to develop better relationships with other members of staff, customers or suppliers. Some people like to do things in the same way all the time, and others like variety and will change the way they do things as often as they can. Depending on the job and the organization, these different approaches may be more or less suitable.

  People have different levels of motivation for work and different things satisfy them. Some people work only for the pay and have little interest in the job itself. Obviously, some jobs are intrinsically more interesting than others, but some people are more likely than others to gain satisfaction from a task, no matter what it is. They gain satisfaction from a job well done, whether it is a happy customer, a problem solved, a project delivered on time or a clean floor. People can find motivation in interacting with others, working in a team, helping someone else, solving a problem, working out how something functions, wielding power and responsibility, being active and in many other ways.

  Different jobs and organizations have a different potential to satisfy these personal needs. Jason, who likes achievements, might prefer a job with difficult goals and targets to reach. Jacinta might find constant striving for targets annoying or anxiety provoking. She might prefer a role where the pace of work was more measured and predictable, where she felt confident that she could accomplish everything that was needed and not have to worry about whether she could achieve what was required. Jason might find a job in sales with targets to achieve each month satisfying but an administrative job keeping records rather boring. Jacinta might find the administrative job appropriate and hate working in the sales environment. The way each person felt about a role would affect how they performed. All things being equal, it is likely that each person would work best in the role that best suited their personal style. It is, therefore, in both the employer’s and the job seeker’s interest to place people in jobs that suit their motivation and personality.

  Working in a job that does not suit your personality generally requires more energy than one that is more in line with how you naturally behave. As an example of this consider Joanna and Josh, two tourist guides. Joanna, who is generally extroverted, likes talking to people and being the centre of attention, is happier in her work as a guide than Josh, who is naturally rather shy and is slow to develop a relationship when meeting new people. Josh has lots of interesting information to impart, but he can be perceived as a little cold and detached by those listening. He makes an effort to seem bright and entertaining to others and to amuse the group with jokes and humorous stories, and this does make his performance more successful. However, it is an effort for him, and at the end of the day he feels quite exhausted with putting on this act. When he is tired he finds it more difficult to maintain the façade and therefore becomes even less successful. Joanna, the more extrovert person, finds being bubbly and amusing quite natural and comes over to the group as warmer and more interested in them – at least superficially. It costs her little effort to be lively – in fact, she usually finds it energizing and ends the day on a high. The group enjoy Joanna’s more natural performance more than Josh’s efforts. Thus the person whose behavioural style best suits the job performs better in the role and gets more satisfaction from doing it. This is a win – win situation for the employer and employee. The person who is less suited to the role in terms of personality enjoys it less and produces a reduced level of performance, and this is a less good outcome for both the employer and the employee.

  Personality style also affects the ease with which someone might learn the new behaviours required in a role. In sales or customer service roles staff need to learn how to interact with people, perhaps how to deal with a difficult customer, how to handle a complaint and how to close a sale. All of these require interacting with other people and influencing them to modify their behaviour or attitude – become less aggressive, less angry or agree the purchase. There are techniques that are helpful in these situations, and with training anyone can become better at handling them. However, a person who is naturally comfortable interacting and influencing others is likely to find it easier to pick up such techniques and use them effectively than someone who is less outgoing or more task focused than people focused. The per
son with a personality that suits the requirements of the role is likely to take more away from training of this kind than the person who finds these behaviours more alien.

  The examples so far are based on jobs that require interaction with people, and they contrasted people who are more extrovert with those who are more introvert. However, similar examples can be found that reflect other personality characteristics. For instance, some people are more rigid in their approach, preferring to do things according to the rules and to work in a consistent manner, whereas others are quite flexible, like to try different approaches, tend to ignore rules and do things as the feeling takes them. The former are better suited to roles where it is important to follow rules and structures – where there are health and safety procedures that must be followed, for example. They are likely to learn procedures more easily and will naturally follow them once they know them. On the other hand, they will feel uncomfortable in less structured jobs where there are no set procedures and everyone finds their own way of doing things or where they are dealing with constant change. The more flexible people will feel comfortable in this type of role but are likely to feel constrained when they are working in a more rule-bound environment. They are more likely to break rules or skip some stages in a task, and this could lead to errors or even serious accidents. Studies have shown that people with some personality characteristics are more likely to have driving and work-related accidents. When health and safety officers investigate accidents they frequently find that lack of concern for procedures is in large measure to blame. Even where there are other contributing factors, such as faulty materials or equipment, the accident could often have been avoided had proper procedures been followed. For instance, a recent marine accident investigation found two crew members on a fishing boat were hurt when they fell over 4 metres from lifting gear, which they had used to get them out of the hold. Using the lifting gear was quicker and required less effort, but was much more risky than climbing the portable ladder that was the safe (and prescribed) way of exiting the hold. People who are adventurous and risk taking in their personality are much more likely to take this kind of dangerous short cut than those who are cautious and follow rules.