PERSONALITY TEST

COURSE NAME: INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY SECTION: 3

TO: Rubayat Kabir Lecturer Department of Social Relations East West University BY: Debasree Paul (ID: 2010-3-70-036) Nabeela Zaman (ID: 2010-3-70-043) Samiya Khondaker Rinta (ID: 2010-3-70-048) Haimanti Roy (ID: 2010-3-70-012) Jobayda Jannat (ID: 2010-3-70-026) Munim Shahriar (ID: 2008-3-70-023)

PERSONALITY AND PERSONALITY TEST

Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. It predicts how a person will workdiligently, intelligently, cheerfully, and cooperatively. It affects the style or manner in which a person approaches his/her work; to the degree that a person must work with othersclients or fellow employeesthis style matters greatly. A personality test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup. Personality tests are used For self-reflection and understanding To look at changes in personality To learn how to better interact with others in a team or work group. To evaluate the effectiveness of therapy Diagnosing psychological problems Screening job candidates

TYPES OF PERSONALITY TESTS

There are two basic types of personality tests:
Self-report inventories Projective tests - involve presenting the test-taker

-involve having test-takers read questions and then rate how well the question or statement applies to them.

with a vague scene, object, or scenario and then asking them to give their interpretation of the test Minnesota Multiphasic Personality item.
Inventory Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) 16PF Questionnaire Birkman Method (TBM) Big Five Inventory (BFI)

Rorschach inkblot test Thematic Apperception Test

SELF-REPORT INVENTORIES
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory administered in one of two forms the MMPI-2 (having 567 true/false questions) and the newer MMPI-2-RF (having 338 true/false items), published in 2008. measures depression, hypochondriasis, hysteria, paranoia, and mania. commonly taken by those applying for high-risk jobs such as law enforcement. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) includes 93 forced-choice questions in current North American English version and 88 in the European English version made up of four different scales E/I (Extraversion or Introversion); S/N (Sensing or iNtuition); T/F (Thinking or Feeling); J/P (Judgment or Perception). personality type code has four letters together; for example, INTJ indicates that one prefers Introversion, iNtuition, Thinking and Judging, so there are total sixteen combinations.

16PF Questionnaire 170 multiple-choice personality questions measures core personality traits that influence behaviour. based on a model of personality which incorporates the following five global factors relating to others; influence and collaboration; thinking style structure; and flexibility management of pressure. predicts work behavior, communication and performance
Birkman Method (TBM) identifies a persons behavior, motivation and interests measures personality traits which are usual behavior; underlying needs; stress behavior; interests; occupational; management styles; work environment used for hiring / selection, career counseling and many more. Big Five Inventory (BFI) measures the Big Five dimensions of personality traits which are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. career professionals and psychologists use this information for recruitment and candidate assessment.

PROJECTIVE TESTS
Rorschach inkblot test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning and to detect underlying thought disorder. ten official inkblots, each printed on a separate white card, approximately 18x24 cm in size; 5 inkblots are black ink on white, 2 are black and red ink on white and 3 are multicolored. analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Thematic Apperception Test popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a series of provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject is asked to tell a story. test contains 32 picture cards. analyzed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction. to screen candidates for high-stress occupations.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Personality test is one of the main type of tests used for recruitment and selection of the right people to an organization. During the selection process there are three questions the person really has to answer :

Personality test provides answers to the 2nd and 3rd of these questions. In most working situations personality of our co-workers and managers affect the day-to-day success of the organization. If the team doesn't work well together or a manager cant motivate their staff, then productivity and quality of service will suffer.

Employers prime objectives are to establish whether you: 1. can do the job 2. will do the job, and 3. will fit in.

A persons personality and behavioral style have a significant role to play in providing the answers to all three questions. Personality tests assist employers to evaluate how you are likely to handle relevant work-related activities.
* Candidates for engineering roles are required to demonstrate a prudent

and calculated approach to work, work-safety attitude, and ability to cope with pressure in the workplace. * Candidates for sales roles are required to exhibit a competitive nature, high motivation to achieve results, and the ability to initiate and close sales. Personality is measured based on its suitability to the job requirements.

HIRING AN EMPLOYEE
Personality is one of the most important factors that is considered when hiring an employee for the following reasons: Team spirit: When hiring, an employer must consider how a prospective employees personality may mesh with the existing staff. Customers buy from nice people: Customers buy from people they like and who are nice to them. An employee with a more people friendly personality is good for a business. The drive to learn: An employee who lacks drive or who does not display the desire to close sales will not fare well in competitive fields like marketing or in commission-based sales positions and is therefore not an ideal candidate for hire. Hire whom you like: Hiring an employee whose personality you enjoy and whom you could see yourself being able to stand seeing every workday is an important factor when considering anyone for hire.

LIMITATIONS
Annie Murphy Paul, author of the Cult of Personality says that "These tests may make Human Resources people feel that they're doing a good job sorting the application pool, but because personality is situational and because these tests are actually not very reliable in terms of their results, they're not a good way to evaluate perspective employees." Problems with personality tests are: Possible for people to engage in deception when answering questions. People can provide false answers to "fake good" or appear more socially acceptable and desirable. People are not always good at accurately describing their own behavior. People tend to overestimate certain tendencies (especially ones that are viewed as socially desirable) while underestimating other characteristics. Self-report personality tests can be quite long, may take several hours to complete. Respondents may become bored and frustrated and might answer questions quickly, often without even reading the test items.

 It can screen out great candidates. The idea is to figure out if someones personality fits a specific job position or not, but it wont work for some professions. For example, what personality makes someone a good computer programmer? This is difficult to answer. Compared to self-report personality tests, in projective tests greater depth can be explored as the client progresses though therapy sessions. In projective tests a therapist can look not only at the client's response to a particular test item; they can also take into account other qualitative information such as the client's tone of voice and body language. In projective tests problem lies in the interpretation of the responses. Scoring test items is highly subjective and different raters might provide entirely different viewpoints of the responses.

POSITIVE OUTCOMES
The alternatives to using a personality test to screen job applicantsjob interviews, background checks, resumesyield random results. However, effective recruiters use personality assessment to enhance their decision-making about the potential of applicants. No recruiter wants to spend time and money on a low potential applicant. Because of this despite the controversy surrounding the personality tests, still there has been a dramatic increase in the use of personality tests over the past ten years or so. Examples of some positive outcomes for carrying out a type of personality test is discussed below: After using Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) to screen candidates turnover reduced by 50% in a retail company improved productivity in an insurance company by 48% decreased lost time accidents among hospital workers by 20%, and increased financial sales in a bank by $308,000.00 per year per sales representative.

APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY TEST

Personality testing or psychometric testing as it is more accurately known is a standardized and objective way of assessing peoples preferred work style and how they would react to various sets of circumstances.

You can either be totally honest and make no attempt to influence the outcome OR You can try to determine what characteristics you think the employer is looking for and try to fake the test accordingly OR You can learn enough about how these tests work so that you can be honest whilst ensuring that you dont blow your chances.